


Love behind an Apology

by MemoryMonkey



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Awkwardness, Crushes, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hannah is a tsundere, Mentions of Sulotte, Mutual Pining, Nightmares, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23776990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemoryMonkey/pseuds/MemoryMonkey
Summary: After Hannah and Barbara take their bullying of Akko too far, Diana forces them to apologise. While this had little effect on Barbara, Hannah found herself plagued by thoughts. The idea of apologising to a lower class witch - especially one who she so pointedly disdained, was humiliating and degrading.So why was it that after making her apology, Hannah felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders? Why was it that, despite her best efforts, she couldn't stop thinking about Akko?
Relationships: Hannah England/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 18
Kudos: 74





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GayStuffe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayStuffe/gifts).



> So I've been writing Diakko a lot more slowly recently and this may or may not be a factor but it's okay because this is hella good~
> 
> Sit down and enjoy yourselves, fellow rarepair shippers.
> 
> (Artist chose to remain anonymous)

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/152846559@N02/49803394191/in/dateposted/)

  


It couldn't be denied that Luna Nova, while historically well renowned for its brilliance as a school of witchcraft, founded by the Nine Olde Witches and producing many of the world's most famous witches, was going in a very bad direction. With world's abundance of magic was ever-dwindling to the point where the school needed the sorcerer's stone to function at all, the rich magical culture that Hannah had grown up in was fading in the eyes of commoners as nothing but tradition and ritual, and even the basic practice of magic was looked askance at.

  


Hannah had always stayed strong in her belief though - that magic was exactly what it used to be, so long as you were skilled enough. After tedious years of practise and study, Hannah had most certainly proven herself skilled enough and had idealised Luna Nova school as she looked forward to enrolling at it. These were trying times indeed as what used to be one of the most acclaimed schools in the world was in such financial trouble, they were forced to admit first-generation witches into their ranks.

  


She would never, ever forget her first day at Luna Nova, where said first-generation witch hadn't even known what a leyline was, let alone how to actually use one. Hannah had dismissed the thought of her ever actually attending the school right there and then - but during their inauguration ceremony, during the headmistress's address, the messy brunette had somehow teleported right into the middle of the auditorium, leaving the whole school stunned.

  


Even after all of that, she was permitted to stay in the school, albeit under rightfully strict supervision. Even when Hannah and her friend Barbara had been placed in a dorm with Diana Cavendish herself, who Hannah had always aspired to be like as a shining example of what a witch should be, she couldn't get the sight of the messy witch out of her head for a single moment.

  


It didn't help when she, who Hannah quickly found out was called Atsuko, began loudly preaching to the academy about her love for the ostentatious Shiny Chariot, who was widely frowned upon in the witching society, and claiming that she was going to be just like her. It certainly didn't help when she inevitably had absolutely no magical talent at all and instantly started a feud with Diana.

  


The worst part of all, however, was that almost every significant event in the school from then on seemed to revolve around her. Somehow, as the months passed, even Diana was sometimes thrown under the shadow of all of the uproar Atsuko was creating. Diana, who was the perfect witch in every way. Diana, who Hannah had quickly learned she would never be able to catch up with. Diana, who Hannah had slowly and painfully admitted was more like a picture of excellence to her than someone who she could aim to surpass.

  


For the first few months, Hannah had ignored her - but there was only a certain amount of complete lack of etiquette, blatant disrespect for tradition and straight-up incompetence Hannah could stand being pushed into her life, so she started taking out her frustrations on the girl. Apparently Barbara was having a similar reaction, quickly joining in with Hannah's mocking.

  


This went on for several months, and Atsuko still hadn't changed.

  


It was potions class. Hannah and Barbara had been paired up, and she couldn't help casting a glance at Atsuko, who had been paired with the potions whizz Sucy, who would obviously end up doing all the work.

  


"Come on Hannah, focus," Barbara said while gently tugging on her sleeve.

  


"Right," Hannah scowled, returning her attention to their cauldron. "It's just difficult to focus when she's being so-" She was cut off by a brief shout from Atsuko's direction, followed by an explosion and a puff of dense smoke filling the whole room. Quick to respond as ever, Diana pulled out her wand and cleared the room of the foul-smelling gas as the class turned to see Sucy complaining at her partner. "-loud," Hannah finished quietly.

  


"Yeah, I feel you," Barbara mumbled, thinning her eyes at her instructions. "As if Professor Lukić's task isn't difficult enough without that incessant stream of distractions."

  


Despite this, the two managed to successfully complete their potion - a potion of translation - with just one sip, the user will be able to engage in communication through any foreign language for the next several hours. Imperfect potions made the user very tired very quickly but still worked - otherwise, they didn't work at all.

  


"Hmmm," the potions professor hummed after taking a sip, pausing for a long time for thought. "It's not bad," she began, noticing the girls' nervous expressions. "Not at all. In fact, I'd say it's near perfect. One of the best I've seen in a while." Hannah sighed in relief, noticing her partner doing the same. "Though ease up on the nectar. Any more of that and I might have had to sit down," she chuckled. "This is worth an A*. Just about."

  


"Yess," the girls hissed, high fiving each other as the professor went on to review the next group. In some lessons, this one included, you would be allowed to keep the potion you made to so long as you returned the bottle within a week.

  


"Hey, Han," Barbara began quietly. Hannah turned to face her. "Maybe you could find that hot Spanish guy you saw in the magazine and use this to talk to him-"

  


"Shut up Barbs," Hannah giggled, punching the other girl on the shoulder. "I said he looked cute, not that I wanted to find him and get to know him," she complained as the two packed up their equipment. "Besides, my Spanish isn't that bad," she added after Lukić dismissed the class and left. "What about you, gonna try to find a werewolf from one of your Nightfall books and snag a date with him?" Hannah teased, nudging the other girl but paused when she saw Barbara's unimpressed expression. At that point, the classroom was mostly empty.

  


"Han. That's not how it-" But she only got that far, cut off as a blur bounded across the room and bumped into her - and she dropped the potion. Time slowed as the bottle fell through the air before crashing into the ground, instantly shattering into several pieces, the valuable liquid evaporating as it hit the floor.

  


Hannah's eyes widened as she spun around, unsurprised to find the moronic witch who had been paired with Sucy stood, frozen as she stared at the floor.

  


There was a brief, tense silence as Hannah watched the contents of the potion disappear into the air.

  


"Atsuko!" She and Barbara shouted loudly, stepping towards her.

  


"H-h-hey, sorry about that-" she stammered and grinned nervously while holding her hands defensively in front of her and stepping backwards.

  


"Oh, you're sorry?" Barbara mocked.

  


"With that stupid grin still on your face?" Hannah hissed, barely noticing Sucy kneeling down and slowly waving her wand around the area the potion had been smashed.

  


"I really didn't mean to-"

  


"Yes, usually what happens isn't what you meant it to, is it?!" Hannah cut her off, stepping forwards again as the brunette retreated. "That thing was valuable!"

  


"H-Hannah, I'm sorry," Atsuko repeated, desperately eyeing Sucy, who had finished cleaning up the floor and promptly left the room, leaving just the three of them.

  


"You mentioned that but you'll find that that doesn't fix your numerous mistakes!" Barbara hissed back as Atsuko found her back against the wall, the taller girls worryingly close to her.

  


"L-look it was just a potion, and I... I was in a hurry to get-"

  


"For GOD'S SAKE, Atsuko!" Hannah shouted, startling the brunette as months of anger suddenly boiled to the surface. "It was just a potion? In Jennifer's name, when will you develop some sense!? That was someone else's creation and you broke it! I bet you couldn't have even made something half that simple by yourself!"

  


"Hey-" The brunette stammered weakly before Barbara cut her off.

  


"Since coming to this school you've done absolutely nothing but make yourself a living mockery of magic! Chariot was an idiot and any self-respecting witch can see that, so why can't you just get over it?!"

  


"Barbara-"

  


"Shut up!" Hannah shouted. "For once in your whole life just be quiet! I don't know how you even got into this school but at this rate, you're never making it to graduation! You don't belong in this school! You're a failure of a witch!" She shouted loudly.

  


After a brief pause, Hannah's brain finally kicked in and she realised that she had got right in Akko's face. With her fists tightly clenched, there wasn't an inch between her face and Atsuko's.

  


"Ugh," she huffed, turning on her heels. "Come on Barbara," she said, moving to leave the room. As Barbara followed her out, she couldn't help but notice the girl had no immature retorts this time. She had gone silent.

  


  


Diana was rarely present in their dorm room as she was usually busying herself with various errands and meetings, or studying in the library. When Hannah had first met her, part of her had wanted to spend as much time with the blonde as possible to learn from her, get to know her and even try to impress her. This was another thing that she had realised she shouldn't attempt to pursue - Diana clearly did a lot of things that Hannah didn't know about and had a very strict time limit, so Hannah didn't want to needlessly bother her.

  


Hannah, tired after another long study session with Barbara, pushed open the door and entered her dorm room, stretching her arms above her head as Barbara closed the door behind them. The room had an odd atmosphere for her - it was quite regal and very spacious, its immaculate deep blue and purple decorations reminding her of the aristocratic life she'd grown up in, while at the same time the abundance of scrolls, tomes and other magical items spoke of adventure and excitement to her. It was her place that she shared with her childhood friend Barbara, who she could always feel comfortable around, yet it was also the place they both shared with the Cavendish heir, making it a slightly tense place of comparison and desperate self-improvement.

  


She let a tired sigh escape her lips as she made for her bed, finding herself easily and messily falling into it and staring at the bed above her.

  


"Are you feeling okay, Han?" Barbara asked softly, kneeling beside her friend and placing her hand on her forehead.

  


"I'm alright, don't worry," Hannah answered, briefly stroking her friend's hand - having grown up so close to each other, the two were accustomed to a level of affection that they wouldn't really share with anyone else. "I don't have a temperature or anything." There was a short pause.

  


"I'm tired too," Barbara admitted, resting her torso on the bed next to Hannah. "Professor Ursula's new Astrology project is really taking it out of me. I never thought I'd struggle so much in that subject."

  


"Right?" Hannah answered. "I mean, I appreciate that she's setting some people harder work than others, but..." She trailed off, the words lost on her tongue. She had to stop herself from saying that Ursula had overestimated her in light of her association with Diana, noticing Barbara nodding next to her.

  


Again, they entered a long and comfortable silence with the distant voices of girls down the corridor and through the window as well as the subtle wind outside creating a gentle ambience. Resting her eyes, Hannah felt for a moment as though she might fall asleep.

  


"Girls."

  


Hannah's eyes bolted open as she suddenly sat up straight, Barbara doing the same as they spun around to see Diana emerging from her section of the room, hidden behind bookshelves.

  


"D-Diana?" She stammered.

  


"We didn't realise you were here," Barbara spoke more calmly.

  


"If I may, I'd like to ask for your attention tonight," she spoke slowly, moving to sit at the central table. "Please sit."

  


Barbara and Hannah met eyes. This was unusual.

  


"Yeah, of course," Hannah answered cautiously, standing up and straightening herself out. While Diana appeared perfectly calm, one could tell in her presence that something was slightly off.

  


"Shall I brew some tea?" Barbara offered.

  


"No, that won't be necessary. Please sit," Diana repeated. Hannah and her friend complied, sitting opposite the blonde. "Earlier today, I saw Lotte more angry than I've ever seen her before."

  


"That's not saying much, is it?" Hannah commented.

  


"Perhaps not," Diana responded. "I admit that her tendency to remain reserved is quite commendable. With that in mind, it should be considered quite serious to see her in a state as distressed as I saw today. Could either of you shed some light on why she was so distressed?" Hannah and Barbara were silent. "Girls, please," Diana sighed.

  


"What is it, Diana?" Barbara asked.

  


"I was in the library earlier today," Diana began. "When Lotte approached me. She told me that a friend of hers, one known throughout the school for her eternal optimism and her tendency to spring back from hardships, came back to her room quite upset today." Barbara and Hannah met eyes. Now they knew what this was about. "She gave me quite a detailed description of what happened this afternoon, actually, shall I recount it to you?"

  


"W-wait, Diana-" Hannah began but Diana ignored her.

  


"Firstly, Akko returned to her dorm room and wouldn't speak to either of her dormmates. She retreated to her bed and hid under the covers. Sucy, who I'm sure you recognise for her apathy, admitted to feeling guilty for abandoning her as they heard sobbing coming from Akko's direction."

  


"We-" Barbara tried to speak but was also cut off.

  


"This went on for more than an hour before she was willing to talk to her dorm mates, explaining the things that had been said to her. I'm sure I have no need to recount them to the two of you."

  


"What the heck," Hannah mumbled. "She's always getting crap from people and she's never cared about it before."

  


"And she ruined our potion!" Barbara complained.

  


"Girls, I recognise that she can be irritating at times and has a crippling etiquette deficiency," Diana sighed. "But you must acknowledge that she too is an aspiring witch and came here with dreams." There was an uncomfortable silence as the other two girls in the room faced the floor. "And as such, the two of you are to apologise to her."

  


"What?" Hannah hissed. "Are you serious-"

  


"I am exceptionally serious, Miss England," Diana cut her off sharply. "Before this time tomorrow, you are both to have made full apologies." Hannah's eyes widened, her hands fidgeting under the table as she scoured her brain for a response. Diana's expression softened slightly. "You will find that she is surprisingly forgiving."

  


Diana left a long pause for her dormmates to digest what they had been told before standing.

  


"That is all. Have a good evening," she said, picking up a stack of books and leaving their dorm room.


	2. Chapter 2

The night had passed, and neither Hannah nor Barbara had left their dorm room. At the back of Hannah's mind she knew she felt just a tiny bit guilty, but it wasn't even worth addressing that thought - Atsuko didn't deserve an apology, Hannah had reprimanded her so that she would become a better witch. She was ashamed at the prospect of owing the girl anything, let alone an apology.

The two had ended up putting it off all evening, silently studying in their room to avoid Diana's further judgement, before eventually falling asleep.

Waking up in the morning, the Cavendish's instruction was the only thing that was going through their minds. As such, making their way through their day was an awkward an ominous endeavour - they woke up early and made their way with Diana to the cantine and ate breakfast without a word spoken between the three of them. Each and every lesson, the two contemplated approaching the surprisingly quiet brunette to apologise but were overwhelmed with something that stopped them - Be it pride, shame or guilt, they couldn't face her. Each lesson was more stressful than the last as Diana's deadline was burned into their minds - Finnelan even caught Hannah not paying attention during a lesson.

Lunch break was the same story, and all of the lessons afterwards. It was only as the brunette was leaving the classroom on their last lesson of the day did Barbara grab Hannah's wrists intently.

"Han, we've gotta do it now. Otherwise we'll have to knock on her door and talk to her in front of her roommates. And maybe she won't talk to us at all," Barbara pleaded intently. Hannah pursed her lips, her hands trembling. She couldn't believe this. "Come on!" Barbara hissed, moving to powerwalk through the other students to catch up with Atsuko.

"B-Barbs, wait," Hannah called, trying to follow her. As the corridors had cleared out, Hannah spotted the two of them talking. Barbara looked really, really ashamed of herself, her eyes glued to the floor, hands twitching by her sides - but still, she spoke to the other girl, then bowed deeply. Part of Hannah admired her courage but another part of her was disgusted by the sight - Barbara, who Hannah regarded as highly as herself if not higher, was actually bowing to her.

She took one more step towards the two witches before she froze. The had literally turned to ice - she couldn't move a muscle. She felt sweat pouring down her brow, her heart beating rapidly in her chest.

"Fuck this, fuck this," she whispered to herself, shaking her head and stepping down another corridor so she wasn't visible from the other two witches, pressing her back against the wall as if some terrible monster was patrolling the halls. "I can't fucking do this, this is a joke!" She hissed, curling up her fists. "What the hell is happening?"

A voice in the back of her head told her to calm down, reminding her that she was representing the aristocratic and highly regarded England family. She paused, taking several deep breaths, before once again looking down the corridor. Barbara and the brunette had finished talking. The brunette was smiling as she turned to walk down the corridor as Barbara started bemusedly searching the corridor for Hannah.

She had missed her chance. Now she was hiding from Barbara out of embarrassment. Hannah shook her head, marching down the corridor in the opposite direction.

Yet no matter what she tried, be it studying, errands, research, even jogging around the school grounds for once, Hannah literally couldn't get a single other thought into her head. Diana's deadline was in a few minutes. It was literally now or never, and Hannah was shaking. Something so petty as an apology was tearing her world apart.

For the third time in the day, she found herself lingering at the entrance to the corridor that lead to Atsuko's dorm. Diana's deadline had just passed, but that wasn't even important at this point. Time limit or not, Hannah just couldn't do it. Her pride is what caused her to walk back to her dorm room, but the walk itself was a mark of her failure, stripping her of every shred of pride she had.

And again, she froze. At her own dorm door. Unaware of Diana and Barbara on the other side who knew she was outside the door, she was rooted to the spot, her jaw clamped shut to stop her from shouting in frustration. Now she couldn't even enter her own dorm room.

But if she did, perhaps Barbara would encourage her, and give her the strength she needed. She opened her mouth to speak, wondering if she should reach out to her dorm mates from outside.

No, this was pathetic. She didn't need her dorm mates to help her to tell someone she was sorry. Hannah's eyes were clouded with moisture at this point but she barely noticed, looking back down the corridor where she came from. This was a test of her own strength, and for her own sake, she had to succeed.

She wouldn't wallow in a pile of shame anymore - a new fire burnt inside of her as she scrunched up her face in frustration, determined to find the brunette and say the damn apology but desperate not to have to knock on her door and do it in front of her dorm mates.

She had literally never been happier to see Atsuko outside of her dorm before, catching a glance of her walking down a pathway outside through a window, the sun setting and basking her in orange and pink light.

Hannah stepped up to one of the doors and took a deep breath, pushing it open. Of course, Atsuko noticed and instantly turned to her. Hannah froze, the door clicking shut behind her, locking her frustrated eyes with the brunette's nervous ones.

"Hey, Hannah," she offered awkwardly. "Are you alright?"

Hannah shut her eyes and sighed, approaching Atsuko. Why in Jennifer's name was the girl asking if she was alright after yesterday?

"Atsuko," Hannah forced herself to say, not registering that she was standing far too close to the brunette.

There was a long pause. A very long, painful silence. Atsuko looked like she knew what Hannah was here for at this point, so she waited patiently as a slight breeze send a massive shiver down Hannah's spine.

"I'm..." Hannah crossed her arms tightly, turning her head away from the witch she was talking to. "Sorry." Instantly, the chills in Hannah's blood stopped. Somehow she felt like something absolutely crushing had just been lifted off her back, and words came flowing naturally to her mouth as if they were just right. "I said some nasty shit earlier, and it was an unwarranted overreaction. I've acted in a consistently foul, crude way towards you every time we've met, so I apologise."

"It's okay, Hannah."

Hannah paused her mental berating for what a fool she sounded like, finally gathering the strength to look at Atsuko again.

"I really appreciate your apology. It means a lot, ya know?" Hannah was speechless. Was she even hearing correctly? "And I figured it was hard for you and Barbara. So, uh, yeah," Atsuko smiled brightly, and it pierced straight through Hannah's soul. Her knees felt like they were about to give in. "It's cool."

Tears prickled at Hannah's eyes again. Why wasn't Atsuko berating her? The brunette had just got something enormous to hold over her, after all.

"Hey, are you sure you're good?" Atsuko asked, stepping even closer to Hannah and gazing up into her eyes as Hannah found herself stepping backwards. "Your eyes-"

"I'm fine," Hannah huffed, turning away in frustration. "We're done talking," she insisted, quickly walking away.

"Okay, but Hannah?" The Japanese witch called. Hannah paused. "You can call me Akko like everyone else does, okay?"

"I was just apologising," Hannah said. "Don't get all friendly with me... Akko!" She huffed, before promptly returning to the corridor to make her way to her dorm.

"The hell was that..." She mumbled to herself. "What's wrong with that girl? I just don't get it. At all. She's weird." She paused in the middle of a dark, empty corridor. Curfew was rapidly approaching and there were no other people in any of the adjacent corridors, leaving her feeling suddenly isolated.

"What was that?" She repeated out loud. "That was supposed to be a depressing, demeaning experience!" She hissed, continuing her walk back to her dorm room. "Why do I feel better coming out of that? That's not how it works!" She insisted. "I. Don't. Understand!" She shouted, her fists clenched before she arrived at the dormitory area. "I don't understand," she whispered to herself, shaking her head.

This time, she was more than ready to step into her dorm and... put it all behind her? She couldn't stop thinking about it. To be honest, she didn't know if she wanted to stop thinking about it. Maybe if she gave it some more thought, it would make more sense to her? She took several deep breaths, carefully clearing away any hints of tears in her eyes before pushing open the door and entering her dorm just seconds before curfew officially took place.

"Han!" Barbara said, looking up from her bed, where she had been reading. "You usually don't come in this late. Did... Did you-"

"Yeah, of course," Hannah mumbled, looking over her shoulder to see Diana giving her a look she couldn't quite place. "I did it, so we're done talking about it."

Heading for her wardrobe and getting changed, Hannah knew instantly how wrong she was. It was totally stuck in her head. If someone had spoken against her like she had to Akko, she wouldn't have ever let them get away with it. If they had come crawling back to her to apologise like she had earlier that day, she would have laughed at them until her voice was hoarse, then probably extort as many favours out of them as she could.

Lying in her bed, Akko's obnoxious smile flashed in her mind again.

"I figured it was hard for you," Akko said in her head. Hannah frowned, thinning her eyes.

"You don't know me, you can't tell me what I find hard and what I find easy," Hannah said back in her head, unaware of her hand gripping the edge of her bed tightly.

"Hey, Han," Barbara asked worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"I said we're done talking about it," Hannah shot back, curling up under her covers. Barbara and Diana shared a look.

"I see," Diana nodded before returning to her work - though her words seemed to carry a lot more suggestions with them, as though Diana saw something else that Hannah didn't. For some time Barbara happily read, Diana studied and Hannah was uncharacteristically left alone to her thoughts. After Diana was done for the day, they turned off the lights to sleep.

Hannah was more aware than ever of the quiet sound of chirping crickets and the occasional night owl hoot. There was the barely audible sound of the distant trees blowing in the wind and other students going to sleep in the adjacent rooms. She knew that apologising to Akko was going to bother her, but not like this. She hadn't been taught forgiveness as she grew up, it just wasn't part of her nature. Keep your enemies in your debt. Never lose a chance. Never give when it's not a valuable investment.

Well at least Akko let her off the hook. Now she didn't have to go near her again.

Hannah turned over, facing the other way and curling up, wishing the intrusive thoughts about the day's events out of her head. She didn't know why Barbara seemed so calm - then again, Hannah had always suspected that her friend had a slightly more empathetic disposition than herself. But was that a step in Akko's direction or a good thing? Hannah often found herself admiring her friend's social skills, after all.

It seemed like, as much as she despised it, today's events had given her a lot to think about - but it only brought her more conflict. If Akko, of all people, was plaguing her mind like this then were the thoughts even worth thinking?

In any case, the thoughts were going to keep her up until the early hours of the morning if she wasn't careful, so she had to stop thinking them either way and force herself to wait for sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The blue dorm, known in the school because Diana Cavendish was in it, was under high pressure to set good examples to the rest of the school. This gave Hannah and Barbara both an atmosphere where they could put into practise the discipline they had grown up with, and one where mistakes would have vast repercussions. Before coming to Luna Nova, Hannah would have been amazed at the prospect of being Diana Cavendish's dorm mate, but when in the public eye her whole identity was "Diana Cavendish's dorm mate", it really didn't help establish herself as her own member of the school, and a valuable asset at that.

One of many examples of this behaviour was that they all got up early in the morning, prepared themselves immaculately and walked quietly down to the cantine so to not disturb the other students. Once there, they would monitor the cantine for anyone causing trouble while eating, clean up properly and leave again, usually as a tight unit of three. Predictably, this led to a lot of Hannah and Barbara following Diana around.

While Hannah was a lot more tired than she usually was in the mornings, the beginning of this day wouldn't be an exception. With early morning sun pouring through the window and dew from the night's gentle rain sticking to the grass outside, Hannah found herself yawning a lot. As expected, Diana, who was up studying later than either of her dormmates, had woken up before either and was filling the brief few minutes between then and breakfast with more study. It was both amazing and terrifying - Inspiring and dispiriting - it filled Hannah and Barbara with work ethic but proved to remind them that if they wanted to be anywhere near as good as Diana, they would need a superhuman study timetable.

After washing and quickly donning her uniform, Hannah stood in front of the mirror to make sure that everything was in order.

"Ready to go, girls?" Diana asked, closing her book and standing up.

"As ever," Barbara responded jadedly, straightening out her hair.

As the three left their dorm to make for the cantine, Hannah's eyes glazed over - she had quickly got used to walking through Luna Nova's halls early in the morning when half the students were still asleep, the other half just starting to get ready for school.

Akko was probably still asleep.

Hannah's eyes refocused as she frowned. Why even think that? Was that more unwarranted malice? Suddenly, memories of the day before came flooding back to her and she couldn't help sighing, a weird concoction of emotions working its way into her head.

"That's the fourth time this morning," Diana dryly commented. "Do tell us if anything is bothering you, Hannah."

Hannah didn't respond for a few seconds as she gathered her thoughts.

"Two days ago, when Lotte came to you. I recognise you were angry at me and Barbara," Hannah began very quietly. "Were we completely in the wrong? Were you ashamed of us?"

Barbara was paying very close attention to the conversation as they walked.

"I must admit I was angry in the moment, yes. I understand that Akko is quite literally your antithesis, Hannah, and you're both concerned that she's going to worsen Luna Nova's crumbling reputation and frustrated that she considers herself as good a witch as myself, but venting your frustrations at her in the form of sharp words is quite inappropriate. The same goes to you, Barbara. However, I was never ashamed. No witch is perfect, myself included. I am proud of you for apologising. And as you were wondering, there's no awkwardness between us regarding any aspects of the following events."

As the cantine began to slowly fill with students, Hannah's mind was still not at rest. She got the terrible feeling that apologising to Akko the day before wasn't going to be the end of her engagements with the Japanese witch after she still couldn't focus. Barbara and Diana were finishing their food as Hannah refocused again, realising she'd barely touched her food. She took quick mouthful for fear of having to explain what was going through her head again, surveying the others in the cantine, noting where Akko was sat. For some reason.

It had reached fifteen minutes before their lesson would start, which is when they would usually return to their dorms to prepare, though Hannah had still barely eaten.

"Don't wait for me," she said quickly as Barbara looked like she was about to say something. "I'll be right with you," she said, taking another bite to prove her point.

Diana didn't need to be told twice before she turned to leave. Barbara hesitated briefly before following the Cavendish heir.

Hannah sighed deeply, leaning her head in her arms on the table and scanning the cantine again as it was as its busiest, letting her eyes drift to the area she'd seen Akko minutes earlier. Only this time, she met Akko's eyes.

She cursed under her breath, quickly averting her eyes to the exact opposite direction, deliberately eating a bit faster. This was stupid. Hannah was so sick of thinking about that girl. She wanted to just go back to studying. Perhaps in a few days' time, this would all go away. Yeah, that sounded right-

"What's up, Hannah?"

Hannah froze, slowly turning to her side to see Akko sat right next to her, unashamedly leaning towards her.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Hannah automatically said.

"Oh, right, sorry," Akko said with her mouth full before taking a second to chew and swallow. "What's going on?"

"I didn't ask to talk to you," Hannah groaned, wishing she had gone with Barbara and Diana.

"But Hannah, you looked so lonely! Y'know, you're always with-"

"Why are you here?" Hannah asked irritatedly.

"Well," Akko frowned. "You're always with your dorm mates, and I was surprised when I saw you glancing over, and I kind of wondered if you wanted to say something which I guess was a bit silly-"

"Just because we talked yesterday doesn't mean we're friends," Hannah said pointedly. "Go and sit down at your table." Akko paused, withering for a moment under Hannah's gaze, before casting her eyes to the floor and quickly leaving.

Instantly Hannah felt guilty. She had never felt guilty because of Akko before.

"Ugh," she complained, quickly finishing the rest of her breakfast before powerwalking back to the dorms. She was going to be late at this rate.

  
  
  
  


Guilt.

Guilt was something that Hannah rarely felt. She had the burden of an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, feeling ashamed of everything she did wrong, and every time she didn't measure up. She felt inadequate when she wasn't the best in a magical field, insecure when someone else was the established best.

But she knew she did everything she could and, as she kept to herself whenever she could, she knew that she didn't end up crossing people or acting in a malicious way towards them so she never ended up feeling guilty.

Of course, she had never given this as much thought in the past as she was at the moment. Her argument had one crippling, blindingly obvious flaw in it that she didn't know how she hadn't ever considered before.

Akko.

Diana had honestly helped her realise how merciless their bullying of Akko was. She had never known that that bullying had actually hurt the girl. Surely that meant that she wasn't in the wrong if she didn't know it was causing damage? Hannah sighed. She was just grasping at straws at this point, trying to curb her guilt.

At one of her astronomy lessons, too.

This was getting more stupid every second. She was at risk of falling below the upper quartile in Ursula's new project if she didn't pay attention, and she was still thinking about Akko.

So she forced the guilt down. She would dwell in it when she wasn't in a lesson. She would only occasionally glance in the brunette's direction but she quickly recovered so it was okay, right?

This succeeded in making her miserable.

For some god-forsaken reason, all of the things that she had said towards Akko over the past few months were all suddenly appearing in her head, as if to remind her how rude a human being she is. _Failure of a witch. Useless. Wasting your time at this school. You'll never be able to use magic. Denser than a brick._

"Stop it," Hannah whispered to herself, shaking her head. This had never bothered before - perhaps it was because Akko forgave her. Naturally, the two of them were a completely different brand of human and Hannah was still well enough in her mind to know that Akko really was a frustrating, stupid and untalented human being. That being said, at least her brain had figured out that the annoying source of noise and disruption that was Akko was a human at all.

_Does Lotte tie your shoes in the morning? You make a lot of noise for someone who has nothing to say. Go back to crying at your chariot alter._

Hannah clamped her jaw shut, lowering her head and drilling her eyes into Ursula's board with desperate intensity in the hope of forgetting about all the things she's said but they wouldn't leave her head. She had already apologised to the damn girl, so what was the problem? Akko had even forgiven her, then proceeded to pester her at breakfast... Just for the sake of it?

Hannah refused to believe Akko was worried for her after everything. Perhaps Akko hadn't forgiven her? Perhaps Akko was trying to mess with her head or frustrate her as revenge? It's not what Hannah would do, but messing with people's heads who had wrong done her certainly wasn't far off the mark. Maybe that was it.

Fortunately Hannah's notes, if not slightly messier than usual, were fully comprehensive and she had kept up through the difficult lesson, despite her peculiar mind space at the time.

Another long sigh left her lips as she walked down the school fields near the edge of the forest by herself after lessons had ended for the day. She usually didn't wander aimlessly, go out by herself, or go near this part of the school, but she just needed to feel the wind away from the confines of the walls in the corridors and the sounds of the other students. She sat down on a log bench, looking up at the peaks of the school she lived in before cradling her head in her arms, grabbing her hair tightly.

"Hey, fancy seeing you here!" Came a cheery and all-too-familiar voice.

Hannah froze. She couldn't be seen like this.

"Hannah? I know you're in there~" Akko joked.

"Why do you keep bumping into me?" Hannah asked offhandedly, staring at the ground.

"Well," Akko said, casually sitting down right next to Hannah. Hannah hat to bite her tongue to avoid reminding the brunette that there was plenty of space on the bench. "I usually come here at this time of day to relax a bit. Today I'm meeting up with Lotte and Sucy after they finish up with something - they should be here any second, actually."

"Oh," Hannah mumbled, shrinking. She would have to find another spot before they did.

"C'mon, stick around!" Akko said when Hannah moved to stand. Hannah paused, again. "You can come with us if you want! We're gonna watch some old cartoons in our dorm room on a screen Cons built from spare parts! Pretty cool, right? You'd better not tell anyone though."

"Akko, are you retarded?" Hannah spat and instantly regretted it. "I mean... That's a silly suggestion," she corrected herself, staring more intently at the grass than she ever had before. "I have better things to do with my time. Besides, I think none of them would want me there anyway."

"C'mon, I could throw in a good word for you!" Akko giggled.

Hannah scowled. She was persistent - but then again, she made it very difficult to believe she hadn't forgiven her.

"Hannah. You were spaced out this morning, and now you're really down," the brunette said, turning her body to face Hannah and inadvertently touching their knees. The touch was electrifying, and Hannah fought against the urge to recoil. She thinned her eyes, mentally promising that if Akko tried to get any closer she would leave. "You're super sad. What's up?"

"Why would I talk to you?" Hannah shook her head, her brow furrowed in confusion. "We're not even friends, we're just talking because you won't let me leave-" She began, and stopped. Again, she felt terrible for saying it. "I mean... We don't know each other... So... I don't see why I should confide my sorrows in you..." She mumbled, the eloquence of her speech rising through the roof as it usually did when she was nervous. Why was she nervous now!?

"Oh, hey!" Akko suddenly shouted obnoxiously loudly, jumping up and waving her hands in the air. Hannah's eyes bolted up to follow where Akko was facing, quickly noticing Akko's aforementioned dorm mates approaching.

Just as she noticed them, they noticed her. They paused. Lotte looked unnerved, jittering like she was tempted to hide behind Sucy, who was glaring daggers at her. If she was any closer, her sharp look would have cut straight through Hannah, who quickly stood up.

And Akko was completely and totally oblivious, her stupid smile fixed on her face.

"Well, see ya later!" She called to Hannah as she skipped over to her friends. Before she had the chance to make the situation worse with her presence, Hannah quickly turned and walked away.


	4. Chapter 4

The movie nights started over a month ago, after Amanda had convinced Constanze to start selling her contraband to other students, and had happened every week since. The red dorm shared their movie nights only between the three of them - it was just another thing they regularly did together to as a closed group of friends and while admittedly Sucy's passion for it wasn't quite what Akko's and Lotte's was as she sat at her work station brewing up something atrocious, she still paid some attention. Sometimes.

Whenever they did a movie night they would take Akko's and Lotte's mattresses and put them on the floor next to each other, creating a sofa for them all to lie on, while they hung the screen at a reasonable height from Lotte's bed. Their dorm room wasn't spacious at all and didn't offer a lot of options but none of them minded at all. Setting up, Lotte had to hold the chairs and various other pieces of furniture in place so to avoid knocking everything over - a lesson learned from a few weeks ago - while Akko set up the floor.

They went by a system called 'hope that no one walks in because we won't be able to fix the room quickly enough for them not to realise what was happening', recognising that three of them had been through plenty of trouble together and they could handle more, should it be the price for the movie night.

As ever, things went by surprisingly easily. They only got through a couple of cartoons before moving onto movies, which were the main problem - Akko wanted action movies and Lotte wanted romance movies. For some time they had fought to find a compromise before conceding to a movie rota instead. The benefits of this were that Sucy began to show interest - though that came naturally with the price of Sucy only watching psychological horror films - mostly the classics.

Tonight, they would try something new - musicals. It had been mostly Lotte's idea, but the three decided it was worth a try. They had been watching West Side Story for some time now, the sky blackening through their window, as Akko's thoughts began to wander.

It seemed like a strange idea, but what if Hannah had accepted her invitation?

Akko pouted, thinking back to their meeting a few hours ago. Hannah clearly hadn't expected Akko to offer - honestly, Akko hadn't expected Akko to offer either, but she just threw the invitation out there on a whim. Hannah was probably raised without movie nights. She was probably raised thinking that they were a waste of time, hence why she said she'd have better things to do.

Sat in the middle of their makeshift Sofa with Lotte at her right, Akko's eyes wandered to the free space on her left, picturing Hannah sat there. Akko was on her back, leaning against Sucy's bed with her pillow between her and it - Lotte had tried sitting cross-legged for the first few movie nights, but eventually conceded that Akko's method was superior. Hannah would probably do the same thing - she would kneel neatly with her back straight, not understanding that she was allowed to relax like everyone else. Akko imagined herself subconsciously reaching out and poking her in order to tell her she could relax too.

She imagined Hannah hesitantly and awkwardly trying to imitate her posture before she finally got it. She was so uptight and mean sometimes but after receiving an apology, and a surprisingly emotional one at that, Akko couldn't help but develop a weird soft spot for her. She wanted to see Hannah happy, just like she wanted to see everyone else happy - even though she was a really nasty piece of work.

"Psst, Akko," Lotte whispered, leaning towards her.

"What's up?" Akko asked, quickly snapping back to reality.

"I was just wondering... And, I mean, I don’t' mean to intrude on your privacy or anything, but..." She paused.

"What’s the matter, Lotte?"

"How come you're being so friendly with Hannah?" She asked.

"Huh?" Akko recoiled, not noticing Sucy pause her work, directing her attention subtly to their conversation. "Being friendly is great, why wouldn't I?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Lotte furrowed her brow as if trying to find the right words. "She's done nothing but abuse you the whole time you've known each other. You're only going to end up getting hurt if you keep talking to her."

"Well she might have been rude, but how's she gonna learn to stop being mean if everyone's mean to her?" Akko huffed.

"B-but Akko, she hates us!" Lotte complained. "She's said some cutting things about us all, and it really hurts. Do you think she wants you to hang around with her?"

"Maybe not, but she's' been really down and I just wanna check that she's alright-"

"She wouldn't do the same for you," Sucy cut in, grimacing. "If you were in bad spirits, it would make her happy. She doesn't deserve your concern."

"Sucy!" Akko frowned. "That's a horrible thing to say!"

"It's true," Sucy shot, frowning back at Akko as if it was obvious. "Lotte is right, she'll hurt you if you become her friend. Stop going near her."

"That's not your choice, it's mine!" Akko shouted back at her.

"How can you be so naïve?!" Sucy thinned her eyes, turning her nose up at her dorm mate. "She's riddled with insecurities and her only aspiration is to suck up to Diana. She's only ever said nasty shit to us and her bullying of you is almost completely unwarranted. She's constantly foul and crude, how do you see any redeeming features in her?"

"Funny you should use those words," Akko clenched her fists, facing away from Sucy. "That's almost exactly what she said to me when she apologised for all her bullying."

The others went completely silent. The room was awkwardly filled with the on-screen gang warfare that went completely unnoticed.

"Is that why you're so keenly defending her?" Lotte eventually asked. Akko sighed.

"I don't know. I just... Recently she's been trying to be nicer. I think. I mean, she'll say something horrible then take it back and say something... Less bad," she tried to explain. "She's clearly making an effort. Don't you think that's worth supporting?"

Lotte cast her eyes guiltily to the floor. Sucy, her face completely blank, went wordlessly back to her potions.

As the movie went on, none of them could pay it any attention, even though Lotte had been desperate to see it due to its parallels to Romeo and Juliet.

"I'm sorry for shouting at you," Akko eventually admitted, as the movie was ending.

"It's okay," Lotte placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "We're still cool," she added with a grin. Akko looked up to see Sucy flashing her a brief thumbs-up, which was the best she was going to get.

  
  
  
  


Hannah was still wandering. It was uncharacteristic of her and, trying once again to push aside all of the stupidity in her brain about Akko, she was only confronted by the sinking feeling of dread as she realised the day had been one of her least productive days in weeks. But only because Akko kept bothering her, so it was her fault. Probably. Still, better to fix the problem than dwell on it, so she decided to go to the library and make up for all of the day's wasted time until she couldn't read another word.

The library was characteristically empty of this time of day - most students had had enough of studying for the day, and would only start working later in the evening to get the work done that was due the next day.

Hannah slammed the textbooks down in front of her with vigour, earning a few nervous glances from around the room, determined to remind herself that she was the Hannah England - she wouldn't let some nobody first-generation witch ruin her productivity.

But just as her hand hovered over the first book, she paused. It seemed like a strange idea now, but what would she have said to Akko if the girl's dorm mates hadn't shown up when they did?

Looking back on it, she realised that on the tip of her tongue was another apology. After all, after her first one she had only began to feel more and more guilty, as if one apology wasn't enough. This time, unlike the last, the idea of apologising to the brunette didn't make her physically sick, merely repulsed - but if the last apology was anything to go by, she would feel better after doing it. Obviously forgiveness was beneficial for the receiver, but what was the point in giving it?

Even though Akko seemed so brightly unperturbed by most of Hannah's words, Hannah felt like she had to apologise again. She looked to her side and imagined Akko sitting in the library next to her. As if Akko would go to the library anyway. She'd probably stare at her book for a small number of minutes before complaining about being hungry and distracting Hannah because she was bored.

Hannah would feel like a fool - but that appeared to be a bit of a running theme over the last few days. Once again, she would be the one approaching Akko. She would murmur everything her breath so that no one else in the library would hear, just hoping that Akko had enough sense to reciprocate.

She would apologise again, but this time there would be more to it. Hannah would acknowledge that she had misjudged Akko's character, somewhat, and admit to her that some aspects of her were good. She had a dumb but weirdly endearing tendency not to hold things over people. She was popular because of her positivity, whether or not that included her brainless worship of Chariot, or because she had to be positive to get by without any magical talent in a school of witchcraft. She seemed like, even though she was in a terrible position for a witch and didn't seem to be improving, she was just happy to be here. Which was complacency, which is bad, Hannah reminded herself. Hell, the girl was even good looking, as if that was important.

But then what? Akko would forgive her again, just like Diana said she would. Then Hannah would be plunged into an awkward silence that stupid Akko would be totally oblivious of. Hannah would eventually break the silence by speaking what was on her mind - which was that every time she insisted they weren't friends she felt terrible, so maybe, just possibly they could start considering themselves friends. But that wouldn't mean anything! Hannah wouldn't start spending her time with someone like Akko, she would just put in more effort into tolerating her.

Hannah nodded, satisfied with her thought process.

Then she saw a clock, realising she'd been in the library for over an hour as her eyes tiredly looked down to her textbooks, realising she hadn't even opened the first one.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered under breath, leaning on the table with her elbows and cradling her head in her hands. "What the hell is wrong with me!?" She hissed, grabbing tight handfuls of her hair and pushing her elbows together as if to take up less space.

The main thought she had in her head while entering the library was 'she wouldn't let some nobody first-generation witch ruin her productivity.' Some resolution that had turned out to be. She was losing. She was losing to Akko, who hadn't even done anything to her apart from be nice.

She would go to her dorm. Barbara would be there pretty soon, and Barbara would help keep her focused on her studies. Nodding to herself, Hannah placed the books back in the bookshelves and stood up, marching irritatedly out of the library.

"Oh, Han," Came a voice from behind her. "You heading for the dorm room?"

"Barbs," Hannah turned around and smiled. "I am. I'm afraid I couldn't focus in the library."

Barbara quickly caught up with Hannah before frowning.

"The library is the last place I would have expected you not to be able to focus," she mused.

"I'd have thought the same," Hannah mumbled. "But..."

"Han?"

Hannah sighed.

"It's nothing."

"Han, I've known you for years, I know when you're feeling down. Please talk to me."

Hannah looked up to meet her friend's eyes. Damn her perceptiveness.

"It's all because of that stupid apology yesterday."

"Huh. I figured that was bothering you after you brought it up with Diana this morning."

"Yeah," Hannah mumbled. "It's just that... I hate saying this, but... Apologising to her made me realise a lot. Like, I've only felt bad about all the crap we put her through since then."

"Yeah, I get you," Barbara nodded. "And Diana was right. Akko told me everything was fine, that I shouldn't worry about it."

The two walked in dense silence for a moment.

"She just has no sense, does she?" Barbara asked, and the two of them laughed.

"No," Hannah shook her head. "None at all."

"Do you think differently of her now?" Barbara asked nervously. "I mean... I kinda do. I mean, it's just harder to be annoyed at her like this."

"Yeah, but it's no just that," Hannah answered. "After I apologised to her, she's been nice. Like, suspiciously nice," she complained. "Whenever I'm not with you or Diana then she asks if something's wrong, and if I'm ever trying to have a moment to myself, she's always there asking if I'm okay." Barbara was listening intently. "It's..." Hannah tried to say infuriating, but she honestly couldn't. "I don't know," she conceded, unwilling to accept that the word endearing was on her tongue again. "I don't get it."

"I think she's just being nice, Han," Barbara shook her head. "You have been acting differently since then."

"Huh? Have I been that obvious?"

"Kinda," Barbara awkwardly admitted. "Maybe you should consider that she's just a nice person. Might help you... get it."

Hannah sighed deeply.

"Maybe you're right," she answered. As she and her friend arrived at their dorm, she resolved that she would find Akko and try to get to know her better.


	5. Chapter 5

  
  


Another morning after Hannah had lost sleep thinking about Akko again - it was legitimately the most perplexing thing that had troubled her mind in years. Hannah really didn't enjoy not understanding things, and she had gradually come to see that the witch who she had looked down upon the most was actually the witch that she had assumed the most about. In reality, Akko was the person Hannah understood the least, even less than Diana.

But this time, she had a plan of attack. Slightly. She was getting the hang of not automatically being horrible to Akko, though it wasn't to say it was easy - as much as she displayed qualities Hannah couldn't understand, she was still rubbish at magic and really obnoxious. But with this in mind, Hannah decided that the next time Akko started a conversation with her, if she did, then she wouldn't push her away. However difficult holding a conversation with Akko may be, Hannah was willing to put up with it if it meant that confusion would stop plaguing her mind.

So, she would talk to Akko. She would try to find out as much as she could about her.

"I'm going to figure Akko out," Hannah inadvertently said to herself, unaware of Barbara raising an amused eyebrow at her.

It was the same process as usual - after wiping the sleep from her eyes, Hannah quickly got ready for the day's activities alongside Barbara as Diana was inevitably already prepared. As soon as they were all ready to go, Diana put aside her books and the three quietly left the dorm room.

Only this time, the quietness of the halls was filled with excited anticipation. The tiniest sounds bounced around the corridor between the morning birds tweeting, the girls' footsteps and the muffled conversations from around the various dorms but not daring to intrude on Hannah's train of thought - this was going to be a good day for Hannah and nothing was going to ruin it.

Sitting down on their table and beginning to eat together, Hannah couldn't help but beam brightly at nothing in particular. Somewhere between then and last time she had seen Akko, she had decided there was nothing particularly wrong with talking with Akko. In fact, she was excited to do so. More excited than she probably should have been and definitely more excited than she understood why, but the excitement was there, whatever the case, and she was happy.

Neither of her friends questioned her as she watched the doors to the cantine with eagle eyes for Akko and her dorm, completely uninterested with anything else, as she took occasional bites out of her food.

Only, there was one small problem. The instant Akko appeared in the doorway, all of Hannah's courage disappeared in an instant, as if it had never been there in the first place. Hannah had frozen, turning red in embarrassment of her own weakness as she watched the girl of all her recent thoughts happily stroll into the cantine, her dorm mates at her side. Remember that it was rude to stare as Akko sat down, Hannah gulped and returned her eyes very deliberately to her food. Apparently this wasn't going to be as easy as she had hoped.

Obviously Hannah wasn't going to approach Akko during a lesson or in the brief moments between them, so she had to wait for an opportunity with more time - but when it came to morning break, Akko was flanked, once again, by her tedious dorm mates.

Hannah paused, watching them slip away down the corridor. It wasn't fair calling them her tedious dorm mates. After all, they had never wrong done Hannah and she had only bullied them for their association with Akko. They had been through much more with Akko than Hannah ever had - which wasn't saying much, considering Hannah and Akko had never been through anything together. They were obviously Akko's close friends, which was definitely more than could be said about Hannah. But still, in Hannah's mind, it wasn't three people that she wanted to talk to. It was just Akko, who happened to always be around her tedious - friends. Hannah felt no such endearment towards Lotte and Sucy as she did towards Akko. Then again, neither of them approached her like Akko did. She hadn't received forgiveness from the others.

She would have to find Akko alone.

Much to her frustration, lunchtime gave her no such luck - she had spotted Akko walking around on her own during a lot of lunchtimes, so why was it that today she was always doing activities with her dorm?

Sat on a bench just off the edge of the school fields with a book in her lap that had gone completely ignored, Hannah stared intently to the far end of the field, where Akko was playing some ball game with a few other girls Hannah didn't know so well. Half a lunchtime of staring had passed before Sucy - and Sucy was always the problem for Hannah - turned and happened to see her, a tiny immobile dot on a bench, staring. Somehow the two of them locked eyes, and Sucy was instantly on her guard again, her eyes turning fierce and her posture jagged and imposing.

Hannah groaned in frustration, standing up and quickly marching in the opposite direction. Maybe she would have to knock on the door to Akko's dorm after all, and speak to her in front of her dorm mates. She had been prepared to do it a few days ago, and back then she was making an apology - this wasn't anywhere near as embarrassing. She still shuddered at the thought of stepping into Akko's dorm when anyone apart from her was around.

It was only after lessons had ended and Hannah had resorted to an angry stroll through the forest to clear her brain when she had a stroke of luck.

It was quite cold and, after pulling her robe tighter around her body, Hannah heard a bang coming from her right - it sounded like an explosion combined with a collision, and she could sense that it was the result of a magic spell. With curiosity getting the better of her, she cautiously stepped off the track and in the direction of where she had heard the sound. Creeping behind bushes and holding her wand tightly at her side, Hannah soon entered a small clearing.

Inside of it - Akko, on her own. Akko with a large cut down her arm, a small stream of blood running from it. She was leaning against a tree, her face contorted in pain, her wand lying on the floor next to her.

"Akko!?" Hannah cried before thinking, covering her mouth.

"H-Hannah?" Akko called back in confusion, her eyes widening as Hannah stepped out of her hiding place.

"What on Earth are you doing here on your own?" Hannah asked worriedly, kneeling down in front of Akko and taking the girl's arms gently in her hands, earning a hiss of pain from the girl.

"I-I was just practising magic," Akko began, tears arriving at her eyes. "Since I... I couldn't do any of the telekinesis spells in class, I came out here to try to do it," she wailed, making the most unflattering face.

"On your own?" Hannah queried, thinning her eyes carefully at Akko's arm. The cut wasn't too deep but it certainly wasn't trivial. She could heal it. "How did this happen?"

"I don't know," Akko sobbed. "One second I cast the spell, and the next I get thrown back into- Ack-" She paused, hissing again as she reached to pick up her wand. "My wrist."

Hannah, while still supporting Akko's arm with one of her own, used her other to gently pick up Akko's other wrist.

"Is it sprained? I-I can heal you-" Hannah began, but froze as she heard footsteps coming from behind her. As her head spun around to face the rest of the opening, her heart plummetted. Sucy and Lotte were there, at the entrance Hannah had arrived from, both pointing their wands at her. Hannah's eyes widened, looking back to Akko - tears in her eyes, blood running down her arm.

"You'd better have a good explaination for this," Sucy spat.

"Akko, I told you you'd get hurt if you kept going near her," Lotte began, stepping towards Akko. Hannah tried her hardest to avoid staring daggers into the girl but failed - that's what Akko was being told?

"W-wait, Lotte, she's hurt-" Hannah feebly began but she found herself cut off.

"Yes, I can tell," Lotte said pointedly. "G-get away from her."

Hannah felt betrayed, even though she knew Akko hadn't meant for this to happen.

"W - I'm trying to heal her!" Hannah shouted.

"And why should I trust you?" Sucy shouted back, pacing towards them. "You've never done anything nice for her! You've been staring at Akko like a creep all day! Do what Lotte said and get away from her!"

"Wait, please," Akko tried to speak up but her voice was lost under everyone else's.

"Sucy-" Hannah began, but recoiled as Lotte interrupted her again.

"HANNAH!" She shouted forcibly.

"I just want to be Akko's friend!" Hannah shouted, falling onto both knees while still keeping a careful hold of the girl's arm and wrist.

Sucy and Lotte, while both giving her disdainful glares, at least paused for a moment. Hannah turned back to Akko, whose eyes had widened, her pained expression instantly replaced by a happy one.

Now there was silence. She had to explain herself.

"I know... It sounds pathetic coming from me now," she began slowly. "I have been horrible to you all. You're right. I was wrong. I made bad assumptions about all of you and failed to treat you with the dignity you deserved. I was the absolute worst. I'm sorry" She paused. "But... I apologised to Akko recently... After I pushed her around a few days ago." Hannah spoke through gritted teeth. "A-and after that, when she started being friendly with me, I just didn't get it. I didn't understand her at all." Now tears were coming to her own eyes. She felt like such a moron. Sucy and Lotte had been right about her all along. "I didn't deserve Akko's forgiveness... But she gave it to me anyway... And I just want to repay her for it... By being her friend."

Everyone stared at her. Lotte looked contemplative. Sucy was hard to read but her expression was still stone-cold, and Akko looked like she was about to burst.

"So please, will you let me heal her arm now?" Hannah begged.

"Akko," Sucy said. "Promise to us she's speaking from the heart?"

Hannah turned to Akko pleadingly and when Akko nodded furiously, Hannah let out an enormous internal sigh of relief.

"...Fine," Sucy eventually said, putting her wand away. "I don't want to watch you two being gross. Don't do anything stupid, either of you," she warned before turning away and returning to the path.

Lotte looked like she didn't know whether to follow Sucy or not, jittering and switching her eyes between following Sucy go and at Hannah and Akko.

"It's fine," Akko confirmed, her arms still held by Hannah's.

Finally Lotte gave a quick nod before following Sucy and disappearing into the greenery.

Before anything else, Hannah gently placed Akko's wrist down on the ground so that she could grab her wand and hold it just above Akko's bleeding arm, whispering a few spells. Akko looked genuinely astonished as all the blood on her arm slowly worked its way back into the cut.

"Hannah," Akko began while the spell was taking place. "I thought you said you didn't want to talk to me." Her voice was weak and Hannah could see, above her wide smile, there were tears welling in her eyes again.

"Well..." Hannah mumbled. Holding Akko's bleeding arm in her own and feeling how vulnerable she really was, Hannah realised she didn't just want to know more about Akko. She really did want to be friends with her. "Maybe I... Was being a bit stupid."

Akko laughed. After she had probably creeped Akko out all day and brought about a heated conflict between her and her dorm mates, Hannah was relieved to no end that Akko had accepted her.

"S-so, can we be friends?" Akko asked nervously.

"Yes, of bloody course we can, you moron." Despite herself, Hannah laughed, watching the skin on Akko's arm slowly stitch itself back together.

"That's awesome... You're so good at magic, Hannah!" Akko said, amazed. Hannah felt heat quickly rise up to her cheeks. She usually didn't get complimented like that - it was just expected.

"Th-thanks," she mumbled. "But Diana could have done a way better job."

"Pfft, Diana Shmiana," Akko giggled. Hannah could help laughing at her immaturity. "She doesn't matter right now, you're the one who's healing my arm and you're doing amazingly!"

"Oh, it's nothing," Hannah said automatically. "Your arm should be okay now, can I take a look at your wrist?"

"Hold on, it's not nothing!" Akko insisted, surprising Hannah. "I could never do this! But I guess that's not saying much," she added with an awkward chuckle, raising her wrist for Hannah to inspect. "I mean, my arm had a big gash in it earlier and now it doesn't. You're not allowed to call that nothing."

Hannah smiled, taking Akko's hand in hers as gently as she could to avoid hurting the wrist, holding her wand up to it to scan for any internal injuries. A spell that Diana had taught her.

"I suppose it isn't nothing, then," she admitted, feeling her cheeks burning again. There was a short pause as Hannah closed her eyes, focusing on the magic. "Akko, you've stretched three of your flexor tendons pretty badly. I can help but it will still take some time to heal," she said, opening her eyes. Akko was giving her a blank look. "What?" Hannah asked.

"Do you really think I know what a flexor tendon is?" Akko asked. Hannah sighed and shook her head, the sides of her mouth curling further up as Akko started laughing again.

"I suppose not." Setting her healing magic to work, Hannah thought back to when she was in the library the day before. There were a few things she still wanted to say to Akko. "Akko," she began, the other girl meeting her eyes again. "I'm sorry. Again. I really have been thinking about the way I've treated you over the last few months, and I've... Well, I said some bad things. I'm sorry. But I really, really mean it. I'm so sorry."

"Hannah?"

"I had misjudged your character quite severely. It took me a long time to understand, but you have an amazing aptitude for forgiveness. Your optimism is endearing, and I can see there's a reason why you're popular all of a sudden. Also. Thank you for being so patient with me. Thank you for asking me how I was all the time." Hannah looked up and Akko looked like a little child, holding back tears again. "You're still stupid," Hannah added quickly. "You're just... Not quite as bad as I thought."

"Hannah... You're the absolute best!" Akko was grinning more widely than Hannah had ever seen before. Under the quickly darkening sky, her smile was almost glowing.

"W... Akko, I'm really n-"

"Thank you for telling me all that! This is the best time I've ever been hurt doing magic practise!"

"Do you get hurt out here a lot?"

"Well. It's not exactly... Rare," Akko laughed slightly. "But I'm used to it. Gotta improve a lot if I wanna get as good as you!"

"R-right," Hannah cleared her throat, refocusing her eyes on Akko's wrist. Carried away in the conversation and the feeling of the other girl's hand in her own, Hannah only just noticed that she had long since done everything she could for it.

For a moment, she ended up inadvertently holding Akkos hand and staring at it, before a gust of wind snapped her back to reality. The curfew would take effect soon. And she was holding Akko's hand for no reason.

"A-anyway!" Hannah stood up, prompting Akko to stand with her. "I've done everything I can for your wrist. Be gentle with it and it should be fine in a few days."

"Oh, leading me around by the hand?" Akko joked. "How chivalrous~"

"S-shut up," Hannah mumbled, instantly letting go of Akko's hand as she laughed again.

"But seriously," the brunette began as the two began their walk back to the school building. "Thanks for healing me. You did way better than Lotte or Sucy," she added in an almost whisper-like voice, as if saying that was somehow taboo. She certainly wasn't sparing on her compliments.

The two ended up walking to the school's third floor together - Hannah knew that the two would split up for their respective dorm blocks, but she felt strangely hesitant to - she had said everything she had been worrying about to Akko earlier, but she still felt like she had a lot more to say.

"See ya around, Hannah!" Akko said brightly, bouncing down the corridor.

"Y-yeah, goodbye," she responded weakly, watching her go.

Well, they were friends now. They would have plenty of opportunities to talk later.


	6. Chapter 6

Hannah didn't pay close attention to her emotions. If she was angry or sad about something, the solution was to do some work and the emotions will go away - that way she would remain productive and not show signs of weakness. Of course, she had been taught to be perceptive of the emotions of others such that she may act accordingly, but her own were only hindrances. That was her upbringing.

Akko was rather different, to say the least. Akko was completely lead by her emotions - if she was angry, everyone would know it. If she was sad, her behaviour made it blindingly obvious. Her aspirations were defined by her emotion, as opposed to what she had been told, so she always ended up acting impulsively. At first glance it seemed like she couldn't read people at all, that she was completely oblivious to how others felt. Either that or she simply didn't take it into account when she acted. But that was far from the truth - Akko clearly had some level of emotional understanding.

Whatsmore, she seemed to have a greater emotional understanding of Hannah than Hannah did. A greater emotional depth too. Hannah had always thought that the Japanese witch was simply in the wrong in the way she acted and that she should, as Hannah did, take Diana's example - but in simply being exposed to it, she very quickly saw the benefits of Akko's upbringing. There was a cheerfulness that made her popular. There was a free-spiritedness that made Hannah jealous. There was an eccentricity that made her exciting.

Hannah was just glad she was realising all of this.

"You're a lot happier than normal," Hannah was told as she entered her dorm room, following her conversation with Akko in the forest. It was a lot later than usual so Diana and Barbara were both already sat at the table, sharing tea.

She turned to Barbara, who had addressed her, considering her answer.

"I suppose you're right," she said, only just realising she was still smiling. But to think that Akko was the source of all of Hannah's happiness was a little bit offputting. Hannah hoped Akko wouldn't get bored of her.

"Perhaps you could enlighten us?" Diana asked, glancing up from her books. Hannah paused before sitting down at the table beside Barbara.

"I talked to Akko at length today... She asked if we could be friends, again. So now we're friends." Diana paused.

"That was unexpected," she eventually said.

Hannah chuckled.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

The three girls spent their evening talking pleasantly around the table before returning to their beds for the night.

At breakfast the next day, Akko once again did the unexpected. Hannah, Barbara and Diana were discussing their latest astrology lesson when the brunette politely made her presence known.

"E-excuse me?" She asked, stood behind Hannah. Diana and Barbara didn't answer, as if Hannah had become their representative when talking to Akko.

"Akko?" Hannah asked confusedly. She had approached all three of them at their table, holding something behind her back.

"Y-yeah, so, ehm, good morning," Akko awkwardly rambled. "Everything, em, going okay?"

Hannah raised an eyebrow. As three pairs of eyes bore into Akko, she caved.

"Okay, take this!" She huffed with embarrassment, shoving a familiar potion in front of Hannah with bandaged arms.

"Akko, your arms!" Hannah said, her eyes drawn straight to the bandages, the uncovered bruises and the dirt and cuts on her hands.

"Yeah, don't worry about that," Akko laughed nervously. "Obviously Sucy is miles better than me at potions and she basically made this one on her own, so she made me get a few ingredients from the forest for her before she gave me this one. It's the one we made in class. Since, y'know, your potion..."

"Akko, you idiot," Hannah said, standing up, taking hold of Akko's arms again. "You didn't have to do that for me and Barbara."

"Well, maybe not," Akko began. She looked uncharacteristically nervous. "But, y'know, I wanted to pay you back. So, please accept this!" She shouted, pushing the potion in Hannah's face.

"Akko," Hannah repeated more softly, taking the potion and placing it on the table before returning her attention to her bandaged arms. She felt anger rise up in her and shot a glare in Sucy's direction, who she then noticed was watching their conversation.

Akko followed Hannah's eyes and spun around to glance at Sucy too, who returned to casually chatting to Lotte. There was a long pause as Akko and Hannah turned their attention back to each other, Barbara and Diana observing their awkward silence carefully.

"I-I mean, thank you for doing this, Akko-" Hannah blurted out, suddenly eager to fill the silence.

"Don't worry, it was nothing!" Akko said, her cheeks turning slightly red. "Well, I gotta go, uh, back to my table and talk to Lotte and Sucy about something!" She excused herself, quickly turning and power walking away.

Hannah stood still for a moment, bewildered, before sitting down and directing her attention back to the potion. Of course, when a witch of a lower class destroys something that belongs to a witch of a higher class, she is obligated to repay her dept - though after Akko bumped into Barbara and ruined potion, she hadn't even considered this happening. Now, after the two had made up, it was suddenly a very different experience.

She picked up the potion and glanced briefly back at Akko, unaware of the look that Diana and Barbara shared. Akko had done a kind thing for her. Maybe she should give something back.

After Hannah tucked away the potion in her dorm for future use, the day's lessons began. Except she felt something bugging her again. She wasn't guilty or annoyed like last time - though she was getting annoyed that she couldn't have a moment of peace to focus on the lesson. Rather, was thinking about her weird friendship with Akko. It had sprung up out of nowhere after months of bullying. Despite the fact that a few days ago Hannah would have said that Akko embodied everything bad about magic, Hannah valued her friendship with Akko very quickly. She didn't know Akko better than Barbara, not by a long shot, neither would she consider the girl her closer friend. No one was a closer friend to Hannah than Barbara was.

Despite this, there was something special about that friendship. Perhaps it was because it was so new. Maybe she still felt put off by Akko's kindness, or maybe she felt that way because in order to become Akko's friend underwent a drastic change of opinion of Akko. Still, maybe due to the class divide, something about the friendship felt taboo, like it should stay as a secret. Something about the friendship felt like Akko wasn't just any ordinary friend to Hannah.

Whatever the case, not being able to focus during lessons was annoying and Hannah found herself, once again, staying in the library long after lessons trying to make up for the wasted time. As it turned out, Hannah wasn't going to be able to get anything done in the library either, as a particularly engrossing distraction made its way to Hannah's side.

"Hannah! Thank goodness you're here!" It was, of course, Akko's voice.

"Keep your voice down," Hannah said automatically, turning around to see the Japanese girl stood next to her with a textbook held tightly to her chest. Akko pursed her lips as if to acknowledge, staring with wide eyes at Hannah. "Okay, sit down," Hannah said quietly. "What's going on?"

Akko sighed in relief, not hesitating to grab a chair and sit down next to Hannah.

"Lotte was busy and Sucy wouldn't help me with my assignment," Akko said quietly, crossing her arms. "So I was wondering if you could help me which I why I came to the library-"

"You want help with your assignment?" Hannah asked tiredly.

Akko pursed her lips again, nodding. Hannah paused.

"Alright, What subject is it?"

"Numerology. It's on page fifty six," she explained, opening the book to that page. Hannah's eyes skim-read the contents, recalling them from a few days ago. She sighed.

"Akko come on, this is easy." She froze. "B-by which I mean, um, so I can help you understand it. Easily," she awkwardly corrected herself, clearing her throat.

As she slowly began to make her way through the material with Akko, she was surprised as the girl picked it up a lot faster than she expected. She wasn't exactly quick but she wasn't hopeless. Hannah just had to go through it slowly and try to explain some topics from multiple different angles, checking with Akko to make sure she was following from time to time. The girl would often make an offhanded comment or joke and usually Hannah would have to fight the urge to laugh. A few times during the session, Akko inadvertently got Hannah talking about life in her 'posh person' dorm, and a few expansive conversations filled the time about dorm life for both of them. Doing everything in the same room as Diana, how do you sleep in the same room as Sucy, etc.

Somehow despite this, they managed to finish the chapter that Akko wanted to get through, but accidentally spent the rest of the evening chatting after that. Hannah was blissfully unaware of the stares that the two of them were getting from around the library.

"...Which is why all three of us snuck out to the Nightfall event," Akko finished, bursting out laughing.

"Ah yes, I remember that," Hannah said smugly.

"W - What the heck do you mean?" Akko recoiled.

"Well." Hannah grinned. "I'm not a Nightfall fan by any means, but I saw you and Sucy cheering Lotte."

"Whaaat? You were there?!" Akko gasped.

"Barbara and I were looking around the town when she dragged me into the event, yes," Hannah grimaced at the memory.

"Hannah, you should have said hello!"

"I think I'd have rather died than be seen by you at that event."

"What, are you that worried about my opinion of you?" Akko grinned, sliding closer to the other girl.

"N-no, I just didn't want to be associated with that ridiculous book series!"

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," Akko said with a wink.

"Oh my god, shut up," Hannah mumbled, punching the brunette, only making her laugh more. "Anyway, it's almost curfew. I can't keep getting back to my dorm last thing in the evening." Even as she was saying the words, Hannah admitted that spending her evenings with Akko and getting back late wasn't so bad.

"Oh? Worried they'll find out we're eloping?" Akko asked.

"Akko, stop talking, or in Jennifer's name I won't ever teach you again," Hannah hissed, her cheeks bright red at the absurd prospect.

"Right, sorry," Akko said quietly. "But in all seriousness, you helped so much. I'd be dead if you hadn't helped me."

"Oh, really-" Hannah began, her blush not fading.

"Really, you're miles better than Badcock! You actually helped me get it!"

"Well... but Diana-"

"Nu-uh, you're not allowed to say Diana is better! Akko insisted. "What did I tell you yesterday?" Hannah paused, thinking back.

"Diana shmiana?" Hannah hazarded.

"Exactly! Doesn't it feel right to say?"

Hannah didn't understand why Akko was suddenly bringing this up. Did she actually see through Hannah's insecurities?

"Anyway, thank you so much~" Akko repeated, stepping into Hannah and hugging her. Hannah froze, her muscles turning into ice under the soft touch. Akko was warm, her hair soft despite its scruffiness. She was a little bit shorter than Hannah, but her grip on the English witch was surprisingly strong. Hannah's heart rate was picking up massively for some reason, each of Akko's tiny movements sending pleasant tingles down her skin. Outside of her family, she had never shared affection like this with anyone apart from Barbara.

When Akko stepped back, Hannah almost asked her not to stop. She probably looked like an idiot right now, flustered beyond sanity, just staring at Akko.

"See ya around~" Akko smiled before turning around and making her way out of the library with her book.

Hannah stared, wide-eyed, at Akko. She just wanted her to come back and hug her and not let go. She wanted her to come back and drown her in compliments, and everything else she never realised she was deprived of.

Akko was amazing, unlike anyone Hannah had ever met before. She wanted to repay all of her kindness and double it. She wanted to do fun things like take Akko out to a shop in Blytonbury and buy her a meal, or teach her to dance. Maybe it helped that she was really pretty. She wanted to walk with Akko through the forest and talk to her all day, and hold her hand, and-

If it was possible, Hannah froze even more, her blush not fading in the slightest - images of Akko's smile and the sound of her laughter bouncing around in her head.

_Oh my God. Do I have a crush? On a girl? On Akko?_

Hannah watched Akko skipping happily down the corridor until she was gone, nervously gulping.

"Fuck."


	7. Chapter 7

Romantic feelings were most certainly not something Hannah was experienced with. She hadn't even been raised to believe that girls had to fall in love strictly with boys - she was raised to believe that partnerships were business, and business only. Love and romance were just examples of the emotions she had to walk over in the name of upholding a strong public image. Much as she had gawked over Andrew and such before, what she felt now was completely different to what she felt then.

I have a crush on Akko kept repeating in her head as she packed up her books and marched straight for her dorm.

Why Akko? Why did it have to be her? It would have made so much more sense if it was Diana or Barbara, but no. She had a crush on Akko.

With that in mind, she collapsed into her bed and, gripping the headboard tightly, screamed into her pillow.

"You doing alright, Han?"

Hannah jerked back, mortified to be caught in such an undignified state, to see Barbara glancing at her over her Nightfall book. Somehow she hadn't seen her there before.

"B-Barbs?" Hannah stammered, quickly standing up and straightening herself out. "You didn't see any of that."

Barbara pulled a face that was hard to read before putting her book down and turning her body so she was sat, cross-legged on her bed, facing Hannah.

"It's Akko, isn't it?"

"W-What? What do you mean, what's Akko?" Hannah spluttered.

"Definitely Akko." Barbara nodded smugly. "Talk to me Han."

Hannah deflated. Leaning her head back and sighing deeply, she let her shoulders fall before sitting down, facing her friend.

"How the heck am I supposed to bring this up?" she mumbled.

"Did something happen?" Barbara asked.

"Well... No, nothing really happened... Per se..." Barbara gave Hannah an unimpressed look.

"Han, you that whatever you tell me won't change my opinion of you."

"I-maybe-have-a-crush-on-Akko," Hannah blurted out quickly while screwing her eyes shut and facing the floor, expecting Barbara to immediately retract her statement. When no such judgement arrived, Hannah opened one eye and risked peeking at her friend.

"Yeah," Barbara nodded absently. "Seemed like it."

"W-what?!" Hannah hissed. "What do you mean, seemed like it?"

"Hannah..." Barbara smiled. "You won't stop sighing into your pillow, you were flustered when Akko gave you the potion and you keep talking about her. Not to mention the longing glances she gets from you. This girl knows when someone's got a crush."

"But Barbara!" Hannah groaned. "We can't run around having romances in this school! We're not supposed to be doing romantic stuff at all! I don't have room in my life-"

"Rubbish!" Barbara interrupted. "You know that's all not true."

"Well even if I did, I couldn't ever be with Akko!" Hannah shot back with force. "She's... she's..." She struggled to think of a reason. She really couldn't. "She's Akko!"

"Isn't that the reason you want to be with her?" Diana asked, emerging once again from her section of the room.

"D-Diana!?" Hannah jumped, her eyes widening at the girl's appearance. "Noo, this is so embarrassing!" She cried, curling up on the bed.

"Oh come Hannah, you're among friends here. And Diana Cavendish is allowed to enjoy a little bit of juicy gossip as well, no?"

Hannah groaned loudly, causing Barbara to start laughing. "My crush isn't funny!" She shouted, only making it worse. "It's a disaster!"

"Why is it a disaster, Hannah?" Diana asked.

"W-well there are a lot of reasons, she's a girl, she's a first-generation witch, I mean, she doesn't even know anything about magic! If my family found out about this..." She trailed off.

"Hannah," Diana said soothingly, placing a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "This isn't about status or conventions." Hannah looked up, amazed. She couldn't believe that Diana of all people was saying this. "You can't let that be the defining factor in your friendship with Akko, and whatever it may become. If you are willing to face whatever you would bring about in this pursuit, then by all means, don't let anything stop you."

"B-but..." Hannah's lips trembled. "But there's absolutely positively no way Akko likes me back! She's just a stupid oblivious kid, she doesn't even know what romance is! And, and I know that she's really forgiving but for the whole time we've known each other I've been terrible to her! There's no fathomable way that would lead to some kind of... Romantic attraction," she mumbled awkwardly, growing redder each second.

"It's true that it is Akko's choice and Akko's choice alone what she should think of you. Yet, you still have the power to inform this decision," Diana advised, her work face slipping back on slightly. "Tomorrow is Saturday. You should make the most of it." Hannah stared as Diana slightly smiled. "And for the record, Barbara is correct. It was very obvious."

Barbara had never Hannah so stressed before. For a large part of the evening, she ended up sat behind Hannah, trying to work some of the knots out of her muscles - during which time she felt protective, contented to soothe her friend until she eventually fell asleep.

  
  
  
  


Hannah and Barbara, while they were hard-working students at the top of the school, couldn't match Diana's work ethic. While it seemed like the blonde filled every free moment with something productive, on Saturdays, the two would attend Ursula's optional divination session in the morning and do a short study session in the afternoon after that, then be done for the day. Sometimes they would go wandering through Blytonbury together to buy something or get lunch, though more often they would just unwind in their dorm.

After Ursula's session, which Diana also attended as well as a handful of the more driven students, Hannah and Barbara made their way to the cantine. Diana usually didn't join them for lunch on weekends.

"Feeling more calm now?" Barbara eventually filled their comfortable silence.

Hannah was planning on answering before something caught her eye. Noticing Hannah's sudden surprise, Barbara followed her eyes until the two saw Akko sat alone on a table at the other end of the room.

Hannah stared. Akko was almost always with her dormmates, and if not them, Amanda's dorm.

"Go sit next to her," Barbara instructed.

"H-huh?"

"It's the perfect chance. You gotta."

"Well, you'll come with me, right?" Hannah begged.

"Of course, I'll be right beside you," Barbara nodded.

"Right." Hannah tensed her jaw, standing up slowly. After taking a deep breath, she slowly made her way towards the lonely girl in the opposite corner of the room.

Once Hannah had almost reached her, Akko noticed. Her face lit up in the most heart-melting way she saw Hannah approaching and she almost stood up, giving an energetic wave over her head. Hannah gulped, turning to Barbara for encouragement.

Only, inevitably, Barbara wasn't there anymore. Hannah's eyes darted violently around the cantine for her friend, her mouth hung open. She knew this would happen, why had she trusted Barbara?

"Hannah?" Akko asked innocently.

Hannah spun around to face her, feeling sweat forming on her brow.

"Hey," she croaked, forcing herself to walk towards Akko and sit down opposite her before scanning the room for Barbara again. It was no good.

"Hey, so Hannah," Akko began brightly. "Since we're friends now, do you wanna hang out sometime?"

"Oh, hang out?" Hannah repeated weakly.

"Yeah! We should hang out for the day! Cus, um... Sucy and Lotte are out getting lunch somewhere," Akko mumbled.

"What?"

"I know right, I can't believe they didn't invite me," Akko huffed, crossing her arms. "I know! Do you wanna come to Blyronbury with me? I'm gonna go after lunch, there's a comic I need to get."

"O, ehm… That's soon, I'm not really sure if I planned on..." Hannah began but paused. Hanging out in Blytonbury with Akko sounded awesome. Besides, after Barbara's little stunt she deserved to be left to study alone. She'd figure it out anyway. "You know what, that sounds really nice," Hannah smiled. Akko breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness!" I was planning on hitching a ride with the food delivery guys again but now you can give me a ride on your broom!" Hannah froze. "I-I mean, if that's okay?"

"Yes." She spoke with determination. "That's quite okay."

"Awesome! Let's go now, I can show you all my favourite places!" Akko grinned, standing up.

"W-now-wait a second!" Hannah huffed as Akko took her hand and lead her to the exit of the cantine.

"Huh? I thought you said it was okay?"

"You idiot, I can walk by myself," Hannah mumbled, disappointed when Akko quickly let go of her hand.

"Sorry, got excited," the brunette excused herself, continuing her brisk pace towards the broom cupboard. Hannah found herself walking wordlessly and close behind Akko all the way before the girl excitedly threw the doors open and turned to her excitedly.

Hannah stepped in and picked up her broom slowly, her nerves eating away at her insides and growing stronger with each passing second. She was really not accustomed to physical contact with anyone apart from Barbara and occasionally Diana - while taking flying lessons in her childhood, she had been taught to fly with someone else on her broom but somehow practising it was very different to actually doing it. Especially when the person who would be behind her with their arms around her torso was her crush.

"You okay Hannah?" Akko asked, snapping the British witch back into reality. "You're kinda... Staring."

"Sorry," Hannah automatically hissed, her eyes darting straight for the floor and colour predictably returning to her cheeks as she stepped out of the cupboard with her broom in her hands. "I'm fine."

After clearing her throat, Hannah mounted her broom and looked over her shoulder expectantly at the Japanese witch. Akko stared back.

"Well?" She eventually asked, both excited for and afraid of what was to come.

"Oh, do I get on before you cast the spell?" Akko asked. "Sorry, I've never been one someone else's broom before."

"Yes. You mount it behind me."

"Ookay~" Akko answered, following Hannah's instructions.

"A-and hold onto my torso," Hannah squeaked out.

"Right, sorry!" Came Akko's voice before the girl's arms appeared under Hannah's, wrapping around her chest and pulling them closer. Hannah was painfully aware of the girl's chest against her back, but she forced herself to relax. At least, as much as she could. She'd done this before with Barbara a lot. How was it so much harder this time?

"Tia Freyre."

Hannah said the worlds shakily, rising into the air impossibly slowly as if she was carrying the most precious cargo in the world. Which she kind of was. She held her breath as she entered the leyline, silently praying for nothing to go wrong - and released it as they eased into it, the all-too-familiar root-like tendrils wrapping around the cyan tunnel and consuming them.

For a moment, it was serene - there were no sounds aside from the powerful magical flow of the leyline, no feeling except Akko's arms around her and nothing to see but the leyline that seemed to stretch on forever. Akko had apparently opted not to distract Hannah so the journey passed quietly. Soon, Hannah sensed the magical opening, a bright light forming around them. After taking a deep breath and pushing on, the familiar process came to an end.

Suddenly feeling a light breeze hit their skin, the pair squinted against the sunlight as Blytonbury came into view, its dense array of brown tiled rooves and bright brick walls stretched out under them, bustling with commotion as ever.

"Wow, thanks for flying me here~" Akko began. "You're really good at it!"

"Pfft, it's just practise," Hannah mumbled, inadvertently cosying up against Akko's chest after a sudden chill in the wind.

"Oh yeah, sure. You're allowed to say you're good at stuff, y'know," Akko complained, unperturbed by Hannah's actions.

Hannah was peacefully gliding over the rooftops when she heard Akko's stomach rumble.

"Oh crap, I totally forgot to eat my lunch!" Akko laughed loudly. "I was so excited to come with you, I forgot it existed!" Hannah paused. She had done the exact same thing, understandably distracted as Akko had pulled her away by the hand.

"Then I guess we'll have to get some here," she answered happily, changing course for a cafe she'd been to a few times. Just as she landed the broom and dismounted, she heard a nervous laugh from behind her and turned to see Akko rummaging through her pockets.

"Ehm," Akko paused and looked at Hannah, offering a nervous smile. "I didn't bring any money," she admitted. "I could have sworn-"

"It's okay," Hannah chuckled. "I'll cover for you."

"Hey, you don't have to do that-"

"It's my treat," Hannah insisted, crossing her arms and pouting.

"Oh?" The Japanese witch paused. "Thank you! You're so kind when you can be bothered~"

"J-just remember to come prepared next time, stupid."

"Will do," Akko grinned, following Hannah into the cafe. Hannah wouldn't admit it, but this was the best way the day possibly could have gone so far. "Oh yeah, you're totally rich, aren't you?" Akko suddenly commented. Hannah raised an eyebrow at her.

"Table for two, please," Hannah said as they entered before sitting down with Akko and passing her a menu.

Akko's attention was on the menu. Hannah, whose menu was laid out in front of her, was completely absent. Was she only here because Akko needed a lift? Were they only in this cafe because Hannah was rich? She knew already Akko would deny it. She felt bad for even thinking that. Yet, Hannah found herself much more worried about Akko's opinion of her when she had a crush on her.

Ever since she had healed Akko and made friends with her, the brunette had started teasing her. She was over-friendly, very affectionate and sometimes even flirtatious, but Hannah just didn't know if this was just Akko being Akko. Obviously a part of her brain wanted to believe it was because Akko reciprocated her feelings, but she shied away from the thought, telling herself it was just what she wanted. Just thinking it almost felt like an invasion of Akko's privacy and dignity.

And was it just her or did Akko wear her skirt way too short? And she had really nice legs-

"Hannah...?" Akko eventually asked, looking over her menu at Hannah.

"What is it?"

"I appreciate that you're treating me right now," she began in a hesitant voice. All the alarms in Hannah's head were going off. What had she done wrong? "But is it because you feel bad about how we used to be? Like you have some kind of debt to pay off?" Hannah gawked. Since when was Akko that perceptive? "Because you don't owe me a thing. Really, when y-"

"Akko," Hannah cut her off. "You're an amazingly open-minded person, but in my mind, I owe you a lot more than lunch at a cafe-"

"Isn't friendship about what's in both of our minds?" Akko interrupted with exasperation, leaning forwards on the table. "It's not about who you used to be, it's about who you are! Hannah, I've forgiven you-"

"Akko, you don't understand," Hannah cut her off again. "You may have forgiven me, but I haven't forgiven myself." Akko was silent. "I... Please, let me pay you back. For my sake."

There was a long silence, some of the other patrons of the cafe glancing at the witches. Finally, Akko nodded.

"Right..." She said guiltily. "Sorry."

"Oh, you really don't need to apologise," Hannah quickly responded, chuckling briefly.

To no one's surprise, Akko had a sweet tooth. Aside from ordering pickled plums, which Hannah would never understand, it seemed like she would only order the sweetest items on the menu. Now, someone being happy to take your money isn't typically seen as something that you would make you happy, but when Akko resigned to let Hannah pay for her and not hold back on what she wanted to eat, Hannah felt a surge of relief. It made her feel trusted. After that, it didn't take Hannah long to relax and eat her food happily.

Going out and spending time alone with friends was something Hannah didn't indulge in a lot. Admittedly she went to Blytonbury with Barbara quite a lot and often ended up spending more time relaxing than she meant to, though their trips always had reason and would often contain mostly work. Now, all of a sudden, she'd been swept up in an awesome afternoon, all because Akko wanted to pick up a comic book.

"I must admit, I never expected to see you in a book shop," Hannah joked as the two of them walked down the street towards it. It was a shop that she had been to a lot of times in the past.

"Hey! I go here all the time, I'll have you know," Akko shot back. "I'm a well-read witch," she insisted as the two stepped into the shop, skipping straight past anything remotely scholarly until they came to the comic section.

"Well read in Shonen manga?" Hannah mused, picking up a manga and scanning it idly.

"It's still reading, isn't it?" Akko mumbled, finding what she was looking for and picking it up.

"Well, I suppose..." Hannah paused, her eyes lingering on the book that Akko had picked up. She froze. "Y-you like reading yuri manga?"

"Uh-huh," Akko answered casually. "You got a problem with that?"

"N-no!" Hannah answered quickly. "I mean, ehm, you can read what you want," she added, averting her gaze as Akko placed the comic on the counter without a care in the world and looked at her expectantly.

Hannah cleared her throat, reaching into her purse and quickly paying for the comic before handing it back to Akko as fast as humanly possible. While her antics slightly confused the brunette, Hannah was caught up in her own mind again. She recognised that her brain jumped to the conclusions she wanted so she tried to ignore the thought, but Akko was reading yuri manga. Girls' romancing other girls.

The pair didn't end up staying in Blytonbury for as long as they thought they would. Somewhat to Hannah's disappointment, soon after a brief walk through the square together they decided they should get back to school, and mounted Hannah's broom. Of course, the electricity that ran through Hannah's body with Akko's arms around her didn't fade, but she was perfectly capable of flying back through the leyline.

"I really appreciate today, Hannnah~" Akko was thanking her after she had placed her broom back in the cupboard and they had stepped back into the school corridors.

"Thanks for inviting me," Hannah smiled. "By the way, is your wrist okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, that," Akko chuckled. "Pfft, it's fine, just gotta not turn it too far," she answered while twisting her hand in circles. "I know I keep telling you this, but you're the best," the Japanese witch said happily, leaning into Hannah to hug her again. Okay, it seemed like Akko was big on hugs. Hannah would need to get used to this.

"Y-yeah," Hannah stammered. "I mean, thank you..."

"Well, I guess I'll see ya later~" Akko called, already disappearing down the corridor.


	8. Chapter 8

The day passed by in a flash after that. The time that Akko spent with Hannah was strangely exciting and engaging, and somehow every other moment began to seem dull in comparison, to the point where Akko would spend the day looking forwards to the next time she'd meet Hannah.

Not long after Hannah and Akko had returned to Luna Nova, night had come and Akko laid in her bet and shut her eyes.

Then she was walking through Luna Nova's corridors. Slightly fazed out, unaware of the details around her. Her footsteps echoed unnaturally in her ears. No one else was around. Then a group of figures was around her - other students she didn't recognise. All tall, posh and smug.

"If it isn't Luna Nova's latest addition," one of them began. Akko immediately recognised the malice in her voice.

Akko couldn't move - her body wouldn't respond. Outside the windows was pure mist and emptiness.

They started talking about all of Akko's mistakes in the school, reminding her of all of her shortcomings. The foolishness of her dream to find Chariot. Breaking Hannah's potion. Being left out of what Lotte and Sucy do. Akko wanted to shout, to lash out - it didn't occur to her that the last was an issue that was locked inside her head, an insecurity she hadn't externalised.

Darkness gripped at their heart under their sneers - she tried to speak, but no voice came.

One of them pushed her, then they all started.

Only then, another figure emerged from the mist that filled the corridor. Hannah.

"What are you all doing!?" She cried, approaching the group and squaring up to them, wand in her hand.

They all paused. Eerily slowly, they all turned to look at her.

"Are you... defending her?" One asked.

Then they were around Hannah.

"Yes, I am defending her," the girl said with steel in her voice. "This is unwarranted and you should apologise."

It gave Akko a flicker of warmth which was instantly overshadowed by terror as they started laughing, grabbing her wand from her and pushing her to the ground.

Akko fought desperately against her body, willing herself to move, to grab her wand, to scream and throw herself at the witches as they started kicking Hannah. Hannah, who was among their ranks. Hannah who Akko was suddenly desperate to protect.

It was different to anything else - Hannah had stood up for her. The girl who was too awkward to go near her not long ago, who had the brightest smile in the world. Wishing she could throw herself between their feet and Hannah, Akko could only stare. She wanted to hold her close and repay all the kindness Hannah had shown her but try as she might, she was powerless to change anything.

Akko's eyes darted open, her chest heaving up and down as she rapidly took breaths, cold sweat on her brow. It seemed like, in her sleep, she had grabbed the duvet and was holding it tight. In its absence she was freezing.

The word Hannah on the tip of her tongue, she sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes, shivering. Lotte and Sucy were asleep. It was early morning, the sky slightly darker than night but barely as the sun touched the horizon, the beginnings of birdsong breaking through the silent night.

Her throat suddenly sore, she felt tears in her eyes, shaking her head as images of the nightmare filled her head. She was unnerved.

She needed to see Hannah. She needed to.

Grabbing her robe and pulling it over her chariot themed pyjamas, Akko carefully opened the door, stepped out of the dorm and closed the door, desperate not to make any noise. She snuck out of her dormitory block and dashed quietly through the third floor corridors until the reached the other dormitory wing, descending the staircase until she was at the door to Hannah's room. Which she had memorised the location of. For some reason.

Then came the next problem. She hadn't thought this far ahead.

Her fist was an inch away from knocking on the door when she remembered that it was barely five in the morning.

Fortunately, the sound of a page turning from inside the room gave Akko all the courage she needed, taking a deep breath and knocking as gently as humanly possible.

A silent, tense moment passed before Akko heard distinct footsteps approaching the door and breathed a sigh of relief as the door was opened.

Inside of it, Diana, dressed in an unsurprisingly elegant nightrobe.

"Akko?" She tiredly asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I-is Hannah here?" She asked, berating herself. Of course Hannah was here.

Diana turned to look in the room, presumably at Hannah, frowning in thought.

"Yes, she's here. Is everything alright?" She asked in hushed tones.

I ne - I need to talk to her," Akko stammered.

Diana paused. Akko swore she could see a small smile on her lips before Diana nodded.

"Try not to wake Barbara up," she said, pulling the door open for Akko to enter.

Akko's eyes took in the scene - she had never been in the room before, and the first thing she noticed was how much space there was. It was very blue, especially when it was so dark. She had to take a second to actually find Hannah but that was made easier when Diana approached her.

Akko was blushing furiously as she stood by Hannah's bed, her eyes trying and failing to look anywhere apart from the sleeping girl.

"Hannah," Diana gently prompted, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. Hannah stirred, turning to face Diana.

"Huh?" She mumbled.

"You have a visitor."

"W-what? What's the time?" She asked groggily, but Diana had disappeared into the bookshelves. Akko waited nervously as Hannah rubbed her eyes, looking at her clock - which happened to be right next to Akko.

Hannah froze. Her eyes stopped dead the second they reached Akko. Almost comically slowly, she raised her head until she met Akko's eyes. Nervously pursing her lips, Akko waved.

Hannah's eyes suddenly widened, her brain waking up as she squeaked indignantly, dashing out of her bed to stand up, grabbing her robe and pulling it over her pyjamas only to get light-headed and pause, almost collapsing against a wall.

"A-" She hissed, clasping a hand over her mouth, remembering she had to be quiet as she slid down the wall and sat down on the sofa. "Akko?" She mouthed, her eyes wide.

"I'm sorry I came here so early," Akko said quietly, sitting down next to Hannah, giving her a moment to stop panicking. "I... I-I just..." She began, tears beginning to well in her eyes as the she recalled her nightmare. She lowered her head to the floor. "I had a nightmare," she mumbled. "And you got hurt, and I want you to be okay, and-I-couldn't-get-back-to-sleep-because-it-was-a-really-bad-nightmare-and-I-need-"

"Akko, slow down," Hannah said quietly. "It's... It's okay."

"Hannah, I need you to be okay!" Akko wailed, leaning towards Hannah and wrapping her arms around her torso, inadvertently resting her body on the girl's lap.

"H-hey..." Hannah stammered, locking up and turning bright red. "Look, I'm here, I'm okay."

Akko nodded, making some sound of acknowledgement but not letting go. Hannah stared at the brunette as she moved closer to her, curling up in her cloak as if it was a blanket. She was still sobbing, her grip tight. Hannah looked up, only to see Diana stood at the entrance to her area, watching carefully. When she met Hannah's eye, she gestured towards Akko as if she was missing something obvious. Hannah stared back aggressively as if to beg for help.

Diana rolled her eyes before miming a hug.

Hannah gulped, looking back down at the Japanese girl. Akko was an affectionate girl. She probably should. Just to comfort her.

Taking a breath, Hannah reached down to place a comforting hand on Akko's shoulder, another moving to gently sift her fingers through the girl's hair.

"I-it's okay..." She hazarded again, inexperienced when it came to. comforting people. "I'm not hurt..." Akko nodded, making another noise that Hannah couldn't begin to decipher. Hannah fought against her nerves so she could stay still. In truth, she really, really didn't want to move. Looking up again, she saw Diana giving her the most smug look she'd ever seen from the girl before disappearing again into her section of the room.

On her other side, Barbara was asleep. Hannah allowed herself a happy sigh, smiling as she gently scratched Akko's hair.

Akko reached up to take a hold of Hannah's hand that was on her shoulder, pulling it over her so that she was inside of Hannah's embrace, keeping a firm hold on Hannah's hand with her own. Again, Hannah froze. She was so not used to this. This was more affection than she had ever shared with Barbara. Akko was holding her hand, curled up in her lap. Hannah looked down at her, just hoping that she wasn't so tense that it was uncomfortable for the brunette.

"A-Akko, if you're not careful you're going to fall asleep on me," She joked quietly.

No response.

"Akko?"

Akko didn't stir. Hannah's eyes widened, her hands suddenly deathly still.

"Akko...?" She repeated, slightly more desperately. She leaned forwards to see that Akko's eyes were shut, her mouth restfully slightly open. She had fallen asleep.

Hannah's brain was going into overdrive, begging her to believe that Akko liked her back. The girl had come into her dorm in the early hours of the morning, held her hand and fallen asleep on her... But she didn't deserve to expect Akko to like her back. In Akko's eyes she was just trying to be a good friend. Surely this was just because Akko confided in her as a friend?

Hannah sighed, looking at Akko again, resisting the urge to tuck the stray strand of hair behind her ear for fear of waking her up.

She couldn't move. She didn't have the foresight to grab her wand before sitting down, and everything was out of her reach. Watching Akko peacefully sleeping, she really had nothing to do for the next few hours.

Hannah pouted, willing her wand out of her desk and into her hand, but it inevitably didn't obey her instruction. If she fell asleep now, Barbara would give her hell for it for the rest of her life, but it was increasingly difficult to not do so. It was also increasingly tempting to close her eyes and breathe out all her stress, lulled to sleep by Akko's one-armed embrace around her torso and her grip on Hannah's hand.

Needless to say, Barbara was happy when she woke up. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and stretching her arms above her head, the first thing she noticed was the distinct lack of Hannah in the bed next to hers. Next was Hannah, asleep on the sofa, with Akko asleep on top of her. It was golden. She had so many questions but they could wait.

Surprisinigly, it was almost time for them to make their way to the canteen and no one had stirred. When Diana came out of her room, she eyes went straight to Hannah and Akko, and she nodded.

"I thought so."

"You thought so?" Barbara whispered, holding back a laugh. "What's going on?"

"Akko arrived here a few hours ago after a nightmare, asking after Hannah. And... this," she said, gesturing towards the two, "happened on its own. Regrettably we're going to have to get going soon, so they've got to wake up."

Barbara watched with keen interest as Diana stood in front of the two girls and gently took hold of both of their shoulders.

"Hannah. Akko," she spoke clearly. As Barbara expected, Hannah stirred but Akko was a more heavy sleeper.

When her eyes drifted open, Hannah panicked. She gasped, retracting her arms, only pulling Akko closer as their arms were so entwined, and waking her up. Hannah scrambled away from Akko, turning bright red under her dorm mates' stares.

Akko looked briefly dazed before displaying the exact same reaction, bolting upright and stepping away from the other girl, bright red.

"I-I-I didn't mean to fall asleep!" Akko stammered, backing away from everyone in the room. "I'm so sorry!" She shouted, bowing deeply before turning around and running out of the room as fast as she could.


	9. Chapter 9

By some incredible stroke of luck, Akko's dorm mates were both still asleep when she got back into her dorm. Neither suspected a thing when she was the first awake, having crawled back into her bed and pretended her heart wasn't beating at a million miles per hour. What she didn't wasn't okay - she shouldn't have just woken up Hannah just to fall asleep with her again. Hannah had looked so uncomfortable when she woke up.

While she was preparing for breakfast with her friends, Akko couldn't shake the thought from her head for a second. Despite everything, Hannah had comforted her. Akko had selfishly turned to her and Hannah graciously provided. The memory of it brought butterflies to Akko's stomach - the feeling of Hannah's fingers trawling through her head, the feeling of Hannah's hand in hers...

Once they arrived at the canteen she pursed her lips, sparing a glance in the English witch's direction - only for Hannah to meet her gaze. Both quickly looked away. Akko cursed her short-sightedness. She might have damaged the friendship Hannah had worked hard to forge with her by making it awkward. You don't sleep together when you're just friends, after all.

She was the one who had a dream about Hannah getting hurt. Well, it was about Hannah getting hurt by other aristocrats after trying to protect Akko?

Then, she had chosen to seek out comfort from Hannah. Hannah, rather than her dorm mates even. She was the one who caused the situation, she was the one who shamelessly lay on top of Hannah and fell asleep.

Taking a seat with her dorm mates, she blushed at the memory.

She wouldn't have fallen asleep on Lotte or Sucy. That would have been weird. She certainly wouldn't have fallen asleep with Barbara or Diana. That would have been a lot more weird.

So what made Hannah different? Akko asked herself, leaning back in her chair with her hands behind her head.

Well, Hannah had been treating her nicely recently. She'd been willing to care for her, sacrifice her time for her, spend money on her... She was really cute, but that wasn't it. Well, maybe it helped. When Hannah had told Akko that while Akko had forgiven her, she hadn't forgiven herself, Akko was amazed. It was an incredible level of maturity and growth from the girl that wouldn't have talked to her not long ago.

Hannah really was amazing. Everyone thought she's just a jerk but she had her own problems. Akko knew she wasn't the best at reading into complicated social issues, but Hannah would always speak little of her own achievements, comparing herself negatively to Diana if Akko ever tried to compliment her. That meant she was insecure, right?

"I just want her to be happy," Akko sighed. But unlike what she'd told herself earlier, it wasn't like she did for all her other friends. It was obvious, there was something different about her relationship with Hannah, but she just couldn't quite place it.

"Who, Hannah?" Lotte asked.

Akko recoiled, her mouth hanging open for a moment.

"I-I said that out loud, huh," she muttered with red cheeks.

Sucy and Lotte shared a look. Recently they had been making an effort, for Akko's sake, to be more patient with Hannah. They couldn't understand why but Akko just went from zero to a hundred with the girl, and now all of a sudden she was getting embarrassed whenever her name was brought up.

"Did something happen?" Sucy asked flatly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Akko tilted her head to the side.

"Don't be dense," Sucy sighed. "You and Hannah. Aside from her for some reason apologising to you, what happened between you?"

"B-between us?" Akko predictably started stammering. "Nothing! I mean... nothing..." She repeated, slightly more quietly. Lotte readjusted her glasses.

"I've read enough to know where this is going," Lotte shook her head.

"What do you mean?"

"Akko, Hannah likes you," Sucy said as it if was obvious. "If you can't tell from the way she can't speak to you without blushing and stammering, you're just stupid. Actually scratch that, you're stupid anyway. But that girl doesn't just want to be your friend," she said coldly.

Akko, eyes wide in confusion, turned to Lotte, who just nodded.

"What?" She whispered, thinning her eyes.

"I appreciate you're willing to be her friend, Akko..." Lotte mumbled in discomfort. "But you really should distance yourself from her or she might get the wrong idea."

"Do you not notice how much she stares at you? How she takes any opportunity to be alone with you?" Sucy asked. "It's creepy."

"Hold on a second-" Akko tried to but in, her brain whirring at a million miles per hour to digest what she'd heard.

"I don't know if it would be the right thing to keep spending time with her," Lotte sighed. "I agree with Sucy, she's kinda creeping me out and the way she's behaving now is worse than the way she used to behave."

Akko couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sucy frowned as Akko shook her head, trying to speak again.

"Don't you get it Akko? She likes you. That's unhealthy, you can't keep entertaining her-"

"And what if I like her back?" Akko snapped. "You're saying that her being nice is worse than her being horrible? Can you hear what's coming out your mouth right now? Do you really want what's best for me, or just what's worst for her?!" Akko hissed, careful not to raise her voice above a quiet conversational level.

This time, her dorm mates were gobsmacked. Even Sucy had a shocked look on her face.

"Akko, did you say..." Lotte had a glint in her eye. "You liked her back?"

"W-well-" Akko froze. She glanced over shoulder again at Hannah, her heart welling with adoration as she leaned back and laughed brightly at something Barbara had said. "Fuck."

"Shit, I didn't expect that," Sucy murmured, prodding at her food with a fork. "What the hell?" She complained, pausing when the table thumped. Akko had flopped down onto the table, her face and arms lying lazily on it, a distinct frustrated groan coming from her.

"H-hey, what's wrong?" Lotte asked quickly.

"I'm so stupid," Akko mumbled, her voice muffled against the table. "That's what it was... She even took me out for lunch at a cafe and everything..."

"Huh?" Lotte's eyes widened, her grin only widening. "When was that?"

"Oh, just when you two were out getting lunch togeth-" Akko froze mid-word, lifting her head to look at the two girls in front of her. "Wait."

"So how long have you had feelings for her?" Lotte quickly asked.

"Ugh, I don't knoooow," Akko complained, returning to her face-down position. For some reason Sucy was snickering. "Maybe since she said that even though I'd forgiven her, she hadn't forgiven herself?" Akko wondered. "She paid for my lunch and that comic and everything..."

"She said that?" Sucy monotoned. "That sounds surprisingly decent."

"Or maybe after she healed me in the woods..." Akko mused. "You know she's a really good healer?" Lotte chuckled softly at Akko's enthusiasm.

"Oh, she looked at you again," Sucy smirked. Naturally, Akko looked over her shoulder at Hannah, who was talking to her dorm mates. Sucy grinned. "You really are hopeless."

"Aaaaaaaargh," Akko groaned again, leaning her elbows on the table and cradling her head.

"I don't see the problem," Lotte mused. "You like Hannah, Hannah likes you-"

"No but I don't know if she really does-"

"She does," Sucy monotoned.

"But she hasn't told me! Surely you recognise the importance of that!" Sucy shrugged. "Besides, it's embarrassing," Akko mumbled.

"How is it embarrassing?" Lotte asked with enthusiasm, leaning forwards with her hands together in front of her chest. "It's adorable~"

"Of course you'd say that," Akko sighed, risking another, longer glance at Hannah.

"Seriously," Sucy began, following Akko's eyes and watching the aristocrats' table. "After all the bullying, this? Why?"

"Because she likes when hot girls are mean to her," Amanda spoke up from behind them. "Duh."

"W-AMANDA!?" Akko hissed, spinning around to see the American wearing her mischief face.

"Am I wrong?" She laughed.

"Yes, you're wrong! She's changed!" Akko insisted, feeling her face redden again. "How long were you listening for!?" She demanded, ignoring Sucy's laughter.

"Since Sucy said Hannah had a crush on you," she shrugged. "This girl's got an ear for gossip. Also I was totally right."

"You weren't right, that's not it!" Akko hissed, punching Amanda and trying to hide her face.

"Wanna know what you should do?" Amanda began.

"No, I really don't," Akko groaned. "Even though I'm a tiny bit curious. I don't wanna hear it."

"Sorry, this is just absolutely golden." Amanda laughed. "I mean, who saw Akko and Hannah coming?"

"I know, right?" Lotte chimed in.

"D-don't encourage her, Lotte!" Akko complained.

"Like, anyone could tell you were gay from a mile away but Hannah?" Amanda continued to tease.

"What the heck does that even mean?" Akko huffed, crossing her arms and facing away from the redhead.

"Can you tell me when you ask her out? I wanna see," Amanda kept going. "Or if she asks you out, just gimmie a call, okay?" This time Akko didn't respond. Flushing bright red, her eyes were glued to the floor at the idea.

"I don't think you'll want to see," Sucy eventually voiced. "It'll be gross."

"I definitely want to see," Lotte said quietly.

"None of you get to see!" Akko hissed. "This isn't a spectator sport!"

"Alright, I'm gonna go tell Cons and Jasna now, I'll see ya later," Amanda called, giving a wave and returning to her table.

Akko was about to call for her to stop but she knew there was no point.

"My God, I hate her sometimes," Akko scowled.

Though it was Sunday - better known in Akko's head as Saturday part 2, another day to do what you want - she found herself constantly running their conversation through her head after they returned to their dorm. With Sucy reading something to do with alchemy and Lotte in her bunk on her crystal ball, Akko was uncharacteristically lying on her bed, doing absolutely nothing. With her hands behind her head, she stared at Lotte's bunk above her thinking about Hannah.

She wanted to know how long the girl had a crush oh her - if she actually did. She felt slightly wrong assuming that about Hannah, but everyone else seemed sure enough. Had Hannah liked her she invited Hannah over to watch cartoons? If she had, wouldn't she have said yes or did she just say no because she was worried about Lotte and Sucy? Thinking about it, she had bullied them too. Surely her change of character towards Akko meant there would be one towards Lotte and Sucy, but they still weren't sure about her. It made sense - after Hannah had turned down the offer and Akko's dorm mates arrived, Hannah was quick to leave. Afterwards, when they had found Hannah and Akko in the forest, Hannah suddenly became very tense. Akko hoped that her dorm mates would forgive Hannah as she did but she did know if she could reasonably expect that from them. Hannah had made it perfectly clear to her that her willingness to forgive wasn't normal.

But what if Hannah had liked her before then? What if it was after her apology, when Akko started approaching her and she got flustered and pushed Akko away with cruel words? Aha, Akko knew the word for that. Tsundere. And what if it was before the apology-

"Akko, I've never seen you concentrate this much in your life. I'm concerned," Sucy's voice cut through her train of thought. Akko turned to face her friend and sighed.

"Sucy, what does Hannah actually think of me? I'm rubbish at magic and I thought she hated that," Akko sighed.

"Ask her yourself."

"What do you mean ask her yourself? That's embarrassing! I thought you could read her emotions or something!"

"There's a difference between being able to tell that she very obviously likes you and understanding the nature of her self-contradictory crush," Sucy monotoned. "Besides, I'm not the one here who's addicted to romance novels, ask Lotte."

"Hey, it's not an addiction!" Lotte objected from the top bunk.

"Lotte, I haven't been able to think about anything else since you and Sucy brought it up," Akko groaned.

"Gay," Sucy snickered.

"Shut it! Lotte, what do I doo?"

"Sucy is right. It's obvious," Lotte chuckled. "You just talk to her."

"Lotte!" Akko complained. "Why are you always agreeing with Sucy! You two are supposed to be good cop bad cop, not just two bad cops!"

"We're both being good cop today," Lotte objected. "Go talk to Hannah."

"But-"

"I don't want to get to the point where we're all bored of you two dancing around your feelings," Sucy interrupted. "Or I'll give you both truth serums and lock you in a room together. The girl's crushing on you harder than a trash compactor so just go and talk to her."


	10. Chapter 10

On Sundays, the blue dorm tended to take things easier than they did on Saturday. While Diana was almost constantly in meetings with teachers, the three of them normally did a morning study session together and were done for the day. Returning from the canteen to their dorm room, Hannah sighed deeply.

"You gotta help me," she mumbled. "Everyone at Akko's table was looking at me through all of breakfast. Even Amanda joined in. I couldn't focus."

"Oh, I was aware." Diana smiled. "Any guesses as to why?" She asked.

"Everyone is suspicious of me being nice," Hannah muttered defeatedly, as if it was obvious.

"Perhaps they are, but notice that Akko specifically is not," Diana corrected her. "Also notice there were a lot of laughs and smiles coming from their direction. If they were discussing you, it most certainly wasn't in a spiteful way."

Hannah was quiet as they walked. It made sense. She refused to believe that anyone apart from Akko was taken in by her change of character - perhaps Akko had managed to persuade them?

"You shouldn't worry so much about people's opinions of you," Barbara eventually said. "There are always going to be people in this school who don't like us because of our status, but there are also people who pay attention to you before making a judgement. Akko the latter, for sure. I imagine there are more among her circles who share that trait than you would imagine."

"I don't deserve it," Hannah stated simply. Walking ahead of the two, Diana was given pause over a short silence before they arrived at their dorm.

"I hadn't imagined that apologising to Akko would have had such a drastic effect on you," she eventually said. "That humbleness is admirable. Considerably so, in light of the efforts you have made to change," she finished, beginning to brew some tea.

"You do deserve it," Barbara said quietly. "Whether or not you and Akko have a bad history, you're still way out of her league," she continued with a chuckle.

"Barbara!" Hannah hissed, as though her friend had just spoken a taboo.

"What? It's true," Barbara answered.

"It is," Diana affirmed from across the room. Hannah turned red. "From an objective standpoint, that is. Though that is of little concern at the moment - your perception of the matter is pivotal and, in light of this morning's events, I think it unwise for you to avoid speaking to Akko."

"Oh my God, don't remind me," Hannah mumbled. "That was so embarrassing. I didn't mean to fall asleep, I-"

"We get it," Barbara smiled. "When Akko fell asleep on you, you just couldn't help i-" She was cut off as Hannah punched her in the arm before hiding her face, making some unintelligible noise.

"If you do keep avoiding her," Barbara continued. "She might get the impression that falling asleep together isn't what you want-" She was punched again.

"It isn't!" Hannah shouted.

"Are you quite sure?" Diana asked calmly. Hannah's eyes shot up to hers, shocked at what she was hearing. Barbara couldn't tell if Diana was trying to help or actually teasing, but Hannah was clearly thinking about it. "I get the impression it's what Akko wanted. She did initiate, after all."

"D-Diana-" Hannah huffed, but couldn't find words to respond.

"We're simply suggesting that you speak to Akko," Diana said calmly. "And, I suppose, the sooner the better."

Hannah was quiet as Barbara sat down next to her. Her friends were right- Akko had looked terrified when she had woken up. Hannah certainly should have woken her up and sent her back to her own room, or at least set up the sofa for Akko then returned to her bed. Or would she have been a better host to sleep on the sofa and offer Akko her bed?

"I wasn't the one who let her into our dorm..." Hannah eventually complained, unable to think of a better retaliation. Diana and Barbara shared a look. "F-fine, maybe later. We'll run into each other or something. That always happens," Hannah mumbled.

  
  
  
  


It did.

It was well into the afternoon with the sky beginning to darken as Akko was walking around outside to clear her head. The breeze made it the perfect cool temperature for her as she looked at the distant, beautiful structure that was her school. At the edge of Luna Nova's grounds, Akko lay down on the soft grass, relishing the sweet smell and breathing out slowly. The sun was casting soft golden light that lit up the fields and the school and gave her an awesome view.

She was ready to fall asleep until the distinct sound of footsteps trudging through the forest brought her back to her senses.

Lazily raising her head to take a look, she could just make out a figure emerging from the forest where Hannah had found her practising magic-

Oh. It was Hannah.

Just as Akko identified her, she was spotted by the other witch.

Akko stared, tired, watching to see if she'd do anything. Hannah was, surprisingly, wearing an embarrassed smile. An 'of course this would happen' kind of smile, trudging slowly towards Akko.

Akko watched, suddenly rooted to the spot, as Hannah walked towards her and stretched her arms. Her hair was glowing in the sunlight as she reached Akko and, not speaking a word, laid down next to her in the grass.

Akko turned her head to meet Hannah's eyes - a beautiful sea of chestnut brown should could get lost in.

Akko knew what she was going to say but she didn't want to open her mouth. Maybe she'd test the waters first?

Without taking her eyes off Hannah's, she let her hand fall into the other girl's hand, breathing a shaky breath as Hannah's fingers curled around her own. A light red dusting was on both of their faces now, and it made Hannah look even more adorable.

"Hannah," Akko began, facing the sky again as she was too afraid to face the other girl. She didn't know what to say. She wasn't ready for this. She'd never done this before.

"Akko?" She responded, her voice gentle and timid unlike anything Akko had ever heard from the girl. Akko sighed, stroking the back of Hannah's hand with her thumb. Hannah's fingers were pleasantly warm.

Maybe she shouldn't overcomplicate things. Maybe she should just say what came to mind, which was what she thought of Hannah.

"Hannah, you're absolutely amazing," her voice, while carried away in the breeze, hung in the air. "And I adore you. With all my heart." Akko felt warmth just from saying those words, unable to hold back her grin.

Oh, that worked.

Hannah's eyes were wide with emotion, the sunlight reflecting brightly off them as Akko reached over with her other hand to gently stroke the girl's jaw.

"And you mean so much to me."

"Oh, Akko," Hannah finally spoke, tears in her eyes as she reached forward and pulled Akko and herself together, embracing her tightly. Akko didn't hesitate to reciprocate.

"A-and..." Akko murmured "Maybe... You're more than a friend to me..." She whispered in the girl's ear. Hannah almost gasped. Akko looked up, and it looked like she was having an internal panic attack.

"And you're more than a friend to me," Hannah eventually said back to her. "Since the second you forgave me. You completely changed me."

Akko's heart skipped a beat. The two separated to meet eyes again, a gust of wind causing blades of grass to tickle their legs and necks. The two separated by a few inches so they could meet eyes again.

"S-so..." Hannah stuttered, her eyes wide but focused on Akko's, her face not flushed but one of concentration. She wasn't going to mince her words. "I really like you..." She breathed. Akko giggled.

"I fucking love you," she laughed, launching herself at Hannah and pulling her into another tight hug in the grass, accidentally rolling over her and pulling the girl on top of her. After pausing for a moment to catch her breath, Hannah rested her elbows on the ground either side of Akko's head, inadvertently straddling the brunette but not caring when she noticed.

"So what are we?" Hannah slyly asked, leaning in so her face was almost touching Akko's.

"I dunno, pretty gay?" Akko hazarded. Hannah laughed. "But how does girlfriends sound to you?"

"That doesn't sound too bad," Hannah smiled widely. "I'm up for that," she whispered, lowering her head slowly and placing a chaste kiss on Akko's forehead. "Oh my God, I was waiting for that," Hannah chuckled as Akko nervously averted her eyes. Akko was happily aware of Hannah's body weight on her, her forehead warm and tingly where her lips had touched it.

Akko leaned forwards, propping herself up with one elbow behind her, taking a gentle hold of Hannah's jaw with her other and pulling her closer, ghosting her lips against Hannah's for a second before lightly pressing them together, just for a moment. After a second of savouring the taste, Hannah leaned forwards to hug Akko again, rolling to the side until they were both on the ground and facing each other.

"Who'd have thought," Akko giggled with happy giddiness, "that you would be asked out by a first-generation witch on the ground in the middle of a field," she began. "And that you'd say yes?"

"Well certainly not me a few days ago. And apart from you, probably no one else. Aside from perhaps my dorm mates as of late."

"Your dorm mates?"

"Barbara took some amusement in my crush," Hannah sighed, lying back down on the grass as Akko scooted closer to lie against her side.

"And Lotte in mine," Akko nodded, nuzzling closer for warmth against the increasingly cool breeze, smiling as Hannah's arm found its way under her shoulders to hold her.

"Probably because of Nightfall," Hannah suggested. "Barbara gets much more excited by romance than I had realised."

"Lotte doesn't hide it," Akko smiled.

"No?" Hannah asked absently, running her fingers through Akko's hair. It brought back memories of just that morning, when the two had fallen asleep together. "Tempting as it may be, I won't allow us to fall asleep like this."

"Mm-" Akko hummed. "Why not?"

"Akko..." Hannah sighed, her heart welling with joy at her silliness. "It's going to get a lot colder. and it might rain. We could be seen out here from the building."

"Mhm~" Akko mumbled.

"Imagine waking up in the morning to see Finnelan looming over us."

"Ugh," Akko stirred, raising her head sleepily from Hannah's shoulder. "Fine."

"You needy girl," Hannah teased, sitting up slowly.

"Shut it, it's not my fault. You made it too tempting," Akko complained.

"Well you're not exactly helping in that regard," Hannah shot back quickly, watching as the sun hovered under the horizon, sending a glorious display of pink and gold into the sky. "We need to get back inside soon. Curfew will be soon."

"Curfew shmurfew."

"That's not going to work on me this time," Hannah chuckled, slowly standing up and stretching her arms, noticing Akko do the same beside her.

"Say, Hannah, are we gonna tell people?" Akko asked, taking Hannah's hand in hers as they started the walk across the school grounds back to the main building.

"Well I can say with some surety that Diana and Barbara will just know. I don't know how, they just will."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Akko sighed. "I mean, Lotte and Sucy wanted me to ask you out anyway so they'll figure it out quickly. They'll probably ask me if I met you when I get back to my dorm," she mumbled.

"Ah, tell them," Hannah answered. "What are they gonna do?"

"Well Sucy will probably be surprised and Lotte will start jumping up and down from excitement, making lots of loud noises."

Hannah shook her head, realising the futility of bringing up the rhetorical nature of her question.

"Right," she answered as they stepped into a corridor through a small side entrance. "We should stop holding hands now," she whispered to Akko, who hesitantly let go. When they reached the third floor, they were suddenly a lot less willing to part than they had been on earlier occasions.

Peaking down the corridor to make sure no one could see, Akko leaned forwards and pecked Hannah on the lips.

"Night, girlfriend," she grinned. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"If you have another nightmare, don't hesitate to come to me again," Hannah winked.

"In that case, I'll try to get Sucy to induce one."

"I love you, Akko," Hannah whispered.

"I love you too," Akko whispered back before the two separated for their dorms.


	11. Chapter 11

Understandably, Akko was exciting waking up the next morning. Even though it was a Monday. She was still on a bit of a bemused high, grinning hopelessly to herself all morning with her energy levels higher than ever. If Lotte and Sucy had a shred of doubt that she and Hannah had got together the evening before, it was definitely put down by now.

Akko was outputting strong positive energy through the whole morning, that most graciously wrote off as Akko being Akko. Surprisingly few noticed the extended glances Akko cast towards Hannah behind her, who happily returned them. Naturally, though it was unspoken, it was completely obvious to Diana and Barbara who were sat either side of her, noticing how she sighed contentedly after Akko turned back to the front of the class. This continued through the whole day's lessons and Sucy almost thought it was worse than Akko and Hannah dancing around each other. Now they were just being gross 24/7.

When it came to the lunch break, Hannah noticed Akko stand up from her table and approach her. While Diana and Barbara watched with the same goofy grins, Akko pulled up a chair and sat down right next to Hannah.

"Afternoon, girls~" She spoke.

'Akko has been sat here for about one and a half seconds and they're already holding hands under the table', Diana said in her head, letting herself smile at the scene.

"Good afternoon," Barbara responded. "I can't help but notice that yourself and Hannah have been quite happy this morning."

"It's great, isn't it?" Akko shot back innocently. "I guess I've just had a good morning. I'm glad Hannah's happy too, but I couldn't guess why." All four of the girls at the table were smiling brightly now, Diana and Barbara at how obvious it was. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask. Ehm, Hannah. You know I invited you to a movie night a little while ago but you declined?"

"I recall," Hannah nodded.

"Wanna come tonight?"

"Oh? With Lotte and Sucy?" Hannah queried.

"Oh, don't worry about them. They'll be round Amanda's dorm this evening to work on their project. They said they would be there all night," She added.

"A-all night?" Hannah parroted, her amazing blush creeping back again. Barbara definitely looked like she was trying to hold back a fangirl scream.

"Uh-huh," Akko nodded smugly. "So if you wanna turn up after lessons, we can, um... Watch some stuff."

"Alright then, Akko. I'll meet you there at four o'clock."

"Deal!" Akko grinned, standing up and quickly leaving.

"All ye who are surprised," Barbara's voice came from behind her, "raise your hand." Hannah turned around confusedly to see Barbara and Diana very much not raising their hands.

"What do you mean?" Hannah frowned.

"Oh, nothing," Barbara smiled. "Our Hannah is all grown up now~" Oh, they definitely knew. Hannah groaned.

"Well, that's one way of putting it."

"And are you going to take up her invitation?" Barbara asked.

"Well, obviously," Hannah laughed.

"I mean staying the night~" Barbara winked.

"W-well-I..." She stammered. "I guess we'll decide when the time comes-"

"I see," Diana smiled. "We'll assume you won't be back this evening, then."

"I hate you two," Hannah laughed.

"Eh, that's what you used to say to Akko," Barbara deflected.

  
  
  
  


Akko was panicking. Everything she had said was true, she was alone in her dorm room and she had set it up as they usually would for their movie nights, but her heart was beating at a crazy rate. What if Hannah wasn't happy with their tiny room or their rubbish setup? Would the girl actually stay the night? Lotte and Sucy actually planned on staying the night in the green team dorm, and they had even taken their bedsheets and mattresses, somehow. This left just her mattress for their make-shift sofa, so they wouldn't have much room.

Even so, she wasn't remotely surprised when, at four o'clock sharp, there came a gentle knock on her door.

"Coming!" She squeaked, jumping up from the ground and rushing to open the door.

On the other side was Hannah, as expected. While dressed in her school uniform with her robe on, she somehow made the uniform look better than it ever had before, her usual bright yellow bowtie tied neatly behind her head and shining brightly in the sunlight.

"C-come in," Akko stammered, stepping to the side. "I'm really sorry that it's so small and cramped, and this little setup is the best we can do-"

"Hey, it's okay," Hannah said slowly, stepping in as Akko closed the door. "It doesn't matter," she added gently as her eyes scanned the room. It certainly looked like something roughly put together but that only made it more like Akko. She let out a brief chuckle. "It's cute."

"It's cute?" Akko repeated, relaxing slightly. "That's a relief." Akko then noticed that Hannah was carrying a bag. "Oh, what's that?"

"This?" Hannah asked, raising the bag. "Well, it's nightwear. I get the feeling I'll be needing it," she said slyly. Akko turned bright red.

"D-do you?"

"Well, since your dormmates so clearly wanted there to be one bed available while they left us here for the night," she mused. "What can I say, I just came prepared. So, is this where we'll be sat?" She asked, sitting down on Akko's mattress and leaning against the pillows against Sucy's bed.

"Y-yeah, that's it," Akko scratched the back of her neck. "So what kind of stuff do you like? Costume dramas and stuff?"

"You got me," Hannah answered guiltily. "I'm a particular fan of Jane Austen"

"Oh, are you...?" Akko answered cluelessly. Hannah chuckled.

"That's okay, we don't have to watch any fancy stuff. I, for one, have a guilty pleasure in the old Disney movies."

"No way! Same!" Akko shouted, jumping up. "I've got a tonne of them here too!" Excitedly, Akko loaded up the screen some of the movies and moved to sit down next to Hannah. They would autoplay so neither witch would have to get up. Hannah found herself pleasantly comfortable in their little DIY setup - due to the small amount of space that the two shared, Akko had ended up leaning against Hannah. Which she probably would have done anyway.

As the movies progressed, the two grew closer until Hannah decided to pull her cloak over Akko and wrapped the girl up in front of her, one arm resting on her shoulder and holding her, leaning her head on top of Akko's. Akko found herself increasingly thankful for her roommates' absence as the two stayed in this position, holding hands inside their cloak cocoon until the sun had set and it was long after curfew. The cool air was barely noticeable between their shared body heat, relaxed smiles stretched across both of their faces. Akko could feel each of Hannah's soft breaths, occasionally pulling the girl's arms tighter around herself.

It made the English witch delirious with happiness. She felt loved and appreciated. She wasn't being compared to anyone - Akko's feelings for her were for her and for her only - and hers were only for Akko.

As the movie ended and the screen faded to black, Akko sighed.

"Can we watch another?"

"It's well past curfew," Hannah said quietly. "We'd be in a world of trouble if someone heard it."

"Hm," Akko grumbled, nuzzling her head against Hannah's chest.

"I think you should get into bed," Hannah said tiredly. Akko didn't want to move. "Don't worry, I might just end up having to join you."

"W-wait, what?" Akko spun around.

"Well, I couldn't risk being seen outside dorms at this time of night," Hannah responded. "We'll just have to promise not to peek as we get changed."

They peeked.

After the two had hesitantly separated and stretched, they turned to face away from each other on opposite ends of the room to get changed - only, while they were both near-naked, they both happened to break their promise at the same time. When Akko turned bright red, Hannah fought hard to hold back her laugh for fear of being discovered, turning back to the wall to continue. After that, they took their promise slightly more seriously.

With the silence of their surrounding dorms, Akko and Hannah turned to face each other again.

"Let's get your mattress back on your bed," Hannah suggested, and they promptly placed everything back in their places. Akko paused nervously as Hannah gestured towards the bed. "You first," she whispered.

Slowly, Akko climbed into the bed and stared at Hannah, who seemed to be getting slightly nervous herself. Carefully, Hannah climbed into the bed beside her girlfriend and pulled the covers over the two of them, her breath hitching as the shorter girl turned and wrapped her arms around her torso again, burying her head in her neck before turning off the lights and placing her wand on her bedside table.

Hannah held the other girl close, kissing the top of her head.

"Goodnight, Akko. I love you."

"I love you too."

  
[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/152846559@N02/49803704587/in/dateposted/)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by the awesome artist Archwyne who draws a lot of Diakko, who you can find [here](https://twitter.com/archwyne).
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this somewhat spontaneous Hanakko fic! Comments are greatly appreciated!


End file.
